Clash of the Elements Part 4: Reuniting the Divided World
by mewmaster93
Summary: The next leg of Riku's journey finds him tackling a 4,000 year long cycle of mana transference between two halves of a divided world. The story of Lloyd Irving and the Chosen of Mana Colette Brunel has been told before, but with the arrival of a person no one expected to see perhaps the outcome of this particular tale will be different than before...
1. Chapter 1

"_Hello there wanderers…My name is the Chronicler. Oh? You were expecting to see someone else here, another narrator perhaps? Yes, I suppose my role so far has been to be an observer, a being who dictates how alternate worlds were born…But the fact of the matter is that my role as an observer is needed this time. The lore of this particular world you'll be visiting today has been buried away, for reasons you'll understand as you listen in to what I have to tell you…_

_Imagine, exactly 5,000 years ago, when a war began between two countries on a world grander than any the likes of which had been seen before. These two countries fought over control of the power source known as mana that spread across the planet from the mythical comet, Derris-Kharlan. The war was fought with devastating weapons that tore apart the lands, ensuring that lands would become barren, dwindling the food supplies for over a thousand years…._

_The devastation spread across this single millennium led to the origin of this war being lost to the recesses of history, and desperation was the only thing driving humans to win…But now they weren't just satisfied with slaughtering each other. For you see, Derris-Kharlan not only gave the planet mana, but it also brought with it elves that integrated themselves with the humans for a time…_

_This led to the creation of half-elves, which had the genes of humans and elves flowing within them. With the war leading to the destruction of the planet, humans slowly began to blame the elves for bringing Derris-Kharlan to their world, which instigated the war in the first place…Naturally, the humans ignored their own greed and began to fully discriminate against the elves and half-elves, killing them and enslaving them to build more weapons to continue their endless slaughter._

_But there was still a way to salvation, a way to end the war…Four heroes, two from each species involved in the conflict, traveled across the world to forge pacts with the Summon Spirits, giving them the necessary power to make the humans listen and release the horrors of their actions. The four heroes were Mithos, a half-elf, Martel, another half-elf and sister of Mithos, Yuan Ka-Fei, a half-elf that originally served the Sylvaranti army, and Kratos Aurion, a human mercenary…_

_While they sought out the Summon Spirits, the four heroes did everything they could to try and ease the tensions between both sides of the conflict to no avail…Cities burned, thousands died, but the four heroes pressed on, each pact they made bringing them one step closer to an inevitable end of this accursed war. The final spirit they made a pact with was Origin, who vowed his loyalty to Mithos alone. _

_Mithos asked Origin for a way to end this war, and with his four arms Origin created the Eternal Sword, a weapon capable of controlling both time and space. With this blade in hand, the four heroes headed to the center of what would be the grandest war between Tethe'alla and Sylvarant. Mithos exclaimed to the heavens that now would be the time for peace to reign between both races as he raised the Eternal Sword into the sky and waited for both armies to take notice._

_They ignored him and rushed to slaughter each other once more, so with barely any thought put into his actions, Mithos swung the Eternal Sword across the very fabric of time and space, creating a divide that split the very planet in two, separating Tethe'alla and Sylvarant in a mere instant, leaving the four heroes on the Tethe'alla side as the two sides of the war were left scrambling in confusion._

_Using the Eternal Sword in such a manner wore Mithos out, leaving him vulnerably in Kratos care for a few minutes, which was all the time the humans needed to notice the four heroes. One lone soldier took aim of the heroes and shot Martel straight through the chest before Kratos, Yuan, and Mithos' eyes. _

_The human was cut down afterwards, and in her final moments Martel begged her brother to create a world without discrimination. But Mithos misunderstood what was said, for as he held his sister in his shaking arms…Something inside of his mind snapped. The war between humans had come to an end, but in doing so they had accidentally given birth to a new threat._

_Carrying Martel's body into the Great Seed that he had originally vowed to plant and grow for Origin, Mithos rose into Derris-Kharlan alongside Kratos and Yuan, vowing to revive his sister no matter the cost while giving her her wish by creating a world of lifeless beings. _

_For the next 4,000 years, Mithos gave birth to a system that would change the flow of mana between both worlds through the use of a "Chosen One", a person created by the manipulation of bloodlines within the humans so they would perfectly match Martel's own. If Mithos could find the perfect match for his sister, then there was a chance he could revive her through that person's body. _

_Not only that, but Mithos began to tamper with the bodies of his brethren and humans via the use of Cruxis Crystals and Exspheres, creating "angels" and "Exublas" in the process. Via the Cruxis Crystals, Mithos ensured immortality for himself, Kratos, Yuan, and every "angel" that he modified to fit his needs. _

_With the Chosen One system and the formation of the organization Cruxis along with the Church of Martel within Tethe'alla, Mithos had secretly taken over the divided worlds. He ensured the continuation of his system by planting his "angels" and half-elf factions known as the Desians throughout both worlds, making it so the humans on the mana deprived worlds would become subjected to slavery and experiments…This was his revenge against the humans for killing his sister, even though he became the very thing he fought against in order to meet this end._

_By the time Mithos had put everything into place to secure his grip on both worlds, the innocent boy was forever lost. Mithos transformed his body into that of an adult via a combination of magic and the Cruxis Crystal, becoming the daunting leader of Cruxis and taking up his last name of "Yggdrasill" in turn. Kratos and Yuan still stayed loyal to him for quite some time…But both eventually began to have their doubts as different events unfolded. For Yuan, it was realizing the truth behind the words of her former wife Martel, and for Kratos it was the death of his own wife and young son at the hands of the Desians…_

_But whereas Yuan secretly created the Renegades to help deal with Mithos' misinterpretation of his sister's last words, Kratos was left broken by the loss of the two people he loved, and even though doubts were now stuck in his head he couldn't bring himself to rebel against Mithos. _

_Eventually though, Yggdrasill assigned Kratos to a simple task. He was to head to Sylvarant and guard the latest Chosen One, a young girl by the name of Colette who Mithos had high hopes that she would be the vessel necessary to revive Martel. _

_Kratos performed his job exceptionally, though he received some help from the girl's two best friends, a human by the name of Lloyd Irving, and an elf by the name of Genis Sage. They were also joined by Genis' older sister Raine, and eventually a ninja summoner from the land of Tethe'alla who went by the name of Sheena Fujibiyashi. Eventually, Kratos betrayed the group at the Tower of Salvation after the ruse of the Chosen One system had been revealed by the angel Remiel, and with Yggdrasill himself coming to claim Colette it was only because of Yuan's timely assistance that the group managed to escape._

_But Lloyd and his friends proceeded to fly off to Tethe'alla through the use of Yuan's Rheaids, taking the now lifeless Colette with them. Kratos has returned to Derris-Kharlan to await further orders from Mithos, and one of the Desians Grand Cardinals has been sent out on Yggdrasill's orders to deal with recollecting Colette. But in this universe, there is one other that is about to take part in this particular event in history…_

**Clash of the Elements Part 4, Story 5: Reuniting the Divided World**

**Chapter 1: Derris-Kharlan**

Months after departing from the last planet he visited, we find the teenage Overlord Riku Mew traversing space like usual. He wore his regular clothes and had a capsule of air around his body that prevented him from perishing in the deadly vacuum of space. His only company is the black dragon of darkness, Takashi, who speaks to him now from the realm that he is lying in _"Riku, couldn't you at least try and land on another planet sometime soon? It's been a couple months now, and surely you are getting tired of space and the stars by now."_

"_You know why I can't." _Riku says in response, leading to Takashi saying in turn _"You can't possibly tell if a planet needs help unless you land on it and look around. Plus you need to eat."_

"_I landed on an asteroid a while back and made some food…I'm fine. As for the planets issue, call it odd, but ever since I gained the Chaos Form, it feels like I can just…You know, tell whether or not a planet needs help?" _Riku's answer makes Takashi go silent for a few seconds.

"_Hmm…Could it be that this is the higher-ups' doing?" _The black dragon tries to mumble to himself, but he ends up being just loud enough for Riku to hear him.

"_What are you talking about?" _The boy pauses in place in the middle of space and turns around, raising an eyebrow as he awaits an answer from the dragon.

"_What I said is that the original Elemental Overlord was like that as well. It was what made him so efficient in finding worlds that needed assistance. The Dark King was naturally his opposite in that regard, as he always found himself drawn to peaceful worlds that needed chaos." _Takashi managed to nonchalantly avoid the issue of what he just mentioned, and though Riku glanced suspiciously at him he dropped the matter in a moment.

The teenage Overlord then turned around and continued flying, saying to Takashi _"I can definitely tell a planet needs my help around here. We're getting close." _

"_Hopefully we won't have to deal with another super powered regenerator. It was too risky for us to face him back then." _Riku nods in agreement of the black dragon's statement, then says in turn _"I won't let something like that happen again."_

The two end their conversation there, and Riku continues flying towards the planet he felt needed his assistance. It only takes him another hour of flight before he begins to notice something suspicious in the distance…To be specific, he notices a couple of things way off in space that were unusual even from his perspective.

The first was a blue planet that was split perfectly across the middle by a large grey and purple dimensional rift, but surprisingly the place didn't seem affected by it. The other thing of note was another planet hovering close to the first one. It was surrounded by a hazy purple atmosphere, but appeared to house a large city underneath. The depths of space around both planets were dark blue in nature, likely because of the purple planet's influence.

Riku immediately felt something familiar upon looking at both planets, something he's just gotten used to at this point in his travels, but instead of making a single comment he glares at the purple planet and kicks off from where he was currently floating to rocket towards the mysterious planet.

The teenage Overlord thickens the capsule of air around his body just in case the atmosphere of the planet is poisonous. It takes him only five minutes to break through the purple haze and descends down into the planet, the atmosphere blowing apart in all directions as it makes contact with the boy's barrier. Riku glances around and tries to get a feel of the haze, finding that while it's mystical in nature, it doesn't match any of his elemental abilities.

"Hmm, the air seems to be pure on this planet. Guess it's ok for me to drop this." Riku finishes going through the atmosphere and notices a technological city down below, at which point he gets rid of his air barrier and flips his body around, transitioning into a slow descent feet first towards the closest stretch of floor in the city.

The boy softly lands in the corner of this particular area, lowering his arms beside his body and immediately glancing up at the tall building just a few feet away from him. It was composed of green and yellow metals and was framed by a slanted, thick blue-grey wall. The floor was made out of a sky blue sleek metal with a few thin dark blue-green plates sending power between the facilities in this city.

Riku notices as he glances off to the left and starts to walk that there are two conveyor belts leading into and out of this area, both covered by a glass tunnel that would be tall enough for anyone to walk through. From the ground, it was also possible to look out into space and see the stars, which looked prettier than usual thanks to the hue of purple covering them.

Now that he's taken in the scenery, the boy quietly comments to himself while walking forward "Wonder who built this place? Hmmm, now I'm starting to get that feeling of familiarity again…"

Riku pauses in the center of the area and quiets himself as he felt a presence in the area for but a brief moment. Glancing to the left and then to the right, the teenage Overlord happens to notice only a shadow fly by on the ground, which causes him to then look up and see what appeared to be the citizens living in this city.

There were three human-like beings flying through the air, all of them wearing old time shirts and elongated skirts while they slowly flapped their feathery, angelic wings. All of them had aquamarine colored hair, which made it hard to tell if any of these beings had individual identities or they were all simply clones of a single person.

The teenage Overlord flinches in surprise as he glares up at the angelic beings, stuttering to himself "A-Angels?" This observation leads to him remembering the fact that there was a second planet a close distance away from this one and in turn he comments "H-Have I stumbled upon this world's equivalent of Heaven?"

His words grab the attention of the angels, who glance at him and immediately fly down in front of the boy in an almost drone-like manner, levitating themselves an inch off the ground before they say something to him. "You are a human…How odd." The centermost angel spoke in an emotionless tone, caring little about Riku's presence here.

The teenage Overlord felt tense and uneasy in the presence of the angels, and more and more he was beginning to piece things together. For now though, he knew that he was not in any sort of 'Heaven'. He swings his body slightly to the right and holds his arms out, putting himself in a battle-ready stance since he couldn't gauge if the angels wanted to attack him or not.

The angels all hold their arms out at the same time, and Riku grits his teeth and says to himself _"Don't get too aggressive here Riku, the last thing you want to do is draw too much attention." _

The teenage Overlord summons forth his helix-bladed sword in front of his right palm and immediately sets it on fire, warning the angels then and there "Don't make a decision you'll regret." The angels were unfazed by the words, but instead of jumping into a fight with the boy then and there they suddenly folded their arms back into their bodies and froze entirely in place. Riku paused and raises his eyebrows for a second before he heard a noise coming from behind him.

Two footsteps were taken by this newcomer before they stopped to look at the boy. The angels back away and nod their heads out of respect towards the person who had arrived, and as the teenage Overlord turned himself around he realized quickly just why the angels stopped fighting.

Standing at the edge of the conveyor tunnel is a human with well-kempt dark red hair, with some of it covering over the left side of his face. He wore mythical armor of ivory and white metal along with bronze straps that curved to and fro across the front of his chest. On his back were two thin cloths with sharp points at the end, and beside his left hip was a hilt with a ivory handled sword that he placed his hand close to as he stood in place.

"Now what do we have here?" The man asked in a subdued tone of curiosity as he slowly waves his left hand out in front of his body and looks closely at the boy's appearance.

Riku recognizes the person in front of him, and quietly says "Kratos Aurion…To think that I'd run into you here." The man overhears his remark and focuses his attention on the boy's face, his expression becoming a little more relaxed as he mentions "So you know who I am…That doesn't surprise me."

The teenage Overlord flinches and his muscles become less tense as he thinks to himself _"W-What? Does he know what I am?"_

Kratos glances at the boy's sword and says "Hmmm…The sword is different but the flames are easily recognizable."

Riku raises his right eyebrow and glances at Kratos, saying to him as calmly as he could "So you DO know who I am."

Kratos looks back at the boy's face and says to him "I do not know your name, but I know you by your title, Elemental Overlord."

The boy's muscles tense up, leading to him gritting his teeth slightly and chuckling as he comments "Hehe, it's been so long since someone recognized me by my title that I had almost forgot it was possible."

Riku then glances at the angels behind him and comments quietly "Judging by your outfit and the angels behind me, I guess right now you're still working for Yggdrasill, which makes you my 'enemy'."

Kratos cracks a tiny grin and hums before saying to the boy "How odd that you'd put little emphasis on the word 'enemy'. Nevertheless, maybe I'm your enemy, maybe I'm not. It all depends on how you plan to proceed from here. Would you like to come with me for a moment?"

The teenage Overlord says to the man "Only if you answer a few questions for me first." Kratos quietly responds after taking a moment to sigh "…Very well, I will allow you exactly three."

Riku starts off with "Does the name Lloyd Irving mean anything to you?" Kratos quickly responds with "Lloyd? Hmmm, if I ever were to have a son, that would be a nice name for him."

The teenage Overlord was surprised by how quickly Kratos responded to that. It was very unnatural, even if the man did know about what being an Elemental Overlord entailed. Riku thus goes off to ask another question "Have you already protected the Chosen One, Colette Brunel?"

Kratos' response this time comes out a little later than before, but he manages to not answer the question the way Riku intended by saying "The Brunels will soon have a daughter of their own, and we plan for her to be the next Chosen One of Sylvarant…But Colette certainly sounds like a name that they would give to her. You now have one question left."

Riku thinks to himself _"He's trying to confuse me by giving information relevant to past events, I just know it. Guess there's only one thing I can do now…" _

Gripping his fingers around where the handle of his sword should be, the teenage Overlord asks "You plan to take me to your master Yggdrasill, don't you?"

Kratos takes his left fingers and starts to grip them around the handle of his sword, responding to him with a simple "Yes, I do."

The teenage Overlord says in turn with a tense smile on his face "And I guess you aren't going to tell me just what he wants with me?"

The man starts to walk away from the tunnel, slowly drawing his sword out of his hilt as he calmly says "I only allowed you three questions. You have made your position known, Elemental Overlord."

Kratos glances at the angels and says to them in an authoritative tone of voice "Tell Lord Yggdrasill that he should be expecting company soon." He then draws his silver and pearl bladed sword out all the way and stands sideways in front of the boy as a small red gleam comes from the back from his right hand, causing six almost see-through light-blue wings to emerge behind him.

A moment later the angels fly off, leading Riku to look at Kratos and think to himself _"Kratos Aurion…To think that you'd be my first opponent here."_

The man says to the boy in a focused tone "Sorry, but I will bring you to Yggdrasill one way or another."

Kratos quickly swipes his sword against the ground in one clean stroke, the impact of the blade's tip creating a fanged projectile that speeds straight towards Riku's body. The teenage Overlord leaps up to avoid the shot and then holds his right hand out, sending out three simple fireballs at Kratos. The man holds his sword diagonally in front of his body while bending his left leg down a bit, creating a green field around his body while calmly saying "Guardian."

When the fireballs impact the barrier, Kratos remains unharmed behind it. Riku lands on the ground and focuses on the ground below the man's body, manipulating the metal in such a way that it creaks and bends before it starts rising up around Kratos' barrier. The man dispels his Guardian spell and leaps up before the metal could clamp itself around his body.

Using his wings to suspend himself in mid-air, Kratos held his sword horizontally in front of his face and summoned forth a red glyphic seal around his feet. After a few seconds a sphere of unreadable runes emerges from around his body along with a small comet of fire as he holds his left hand out and focuses the built up magical energy on Riku's body.

It only takes a mere second for the ground below Riku to transform into a ring of burning magma, leaving him with just enough time to create a sphere of water around his body to absorb the three dome shaped eruptions that emerge from the center of the ring. With the barrier dissolved around his body, the teenage Overlord thus is forced to take a projectile of fire to his body that Kratos launched forth with a swing of his sword.

The burning effects of the projectile were negated, but Riku still took some damage from the rest of the attack's properties. Kratos falls from the sky and lands on the curved edge of the bent metal, where he proceeds to then launch himself forward at the boy. Riku raises his sword in defense, causing the tip of Kratos' blade to meet the center of the boy's own. But the man anticipated this maneuver and swiftly summoned forth a purple lightning bolt from the ether that struck the boy straight down.

Kratos then used his wings to pull back and land on the ground a few feet away from the boy, who was now briefly stunned thanks to the lightning bolt. The man quickly goes to conjure up another spell, this time with the glyphic ring being brown in color.

Riku recognizes the spell that was about to be performed and chooses to counteract it by hardening his shoes with a coat of raw steel while bracing his body perfectly in place. Kratos swings his left hand out and the ground below Riku breaks apart as a spike shaped mass of onyx pushes against his feet and kicks him into the air, which would then be followed up by four more spikes erupting around Riku's body if he did not swiftly spin his body around and cut the tips right off with his heated blade.

Once back on the ground he looks at Kratos, who waited for the exact moment that the boy landed before running forward and flipping his blade around so he could use the very brunt of the handle along with his fist to punch Riku straight in the chest. The boy's breath is taken away before he can fight back, and as Kratos takes a couple steps back Riku drops on one knee and uses his left hand to keep himself from going down all the way.

The boy glances up at Kratos while catching his breath, and the man says to him in a somewhat puzzled tone while sheathing his blade back into the hilt "Why are you holding back?"

Riku smiles at the question and says "Hehe, you were expecting me to put up more of a fight, weren't you?"

"Of course." Kratos replies honestly. The teenage Overlord then glances at Kratos' hilt and comments in his head _"Kratos is holding back as well…He's not using that fabled sword of his…" _

The teenage Overlord then glances back up at Kratos' face and says to him "You were fighting to incapacitate me. You intentionally used tactics that I could easily counteract or be relatively unharmed by…Why?"

Kratos says to the boy in turn "What Lord Yggdrasill requires from you means you need to be kept intact. You have nowhere to run, Elemental Overlord. Your only options are to surrender or fight."

Riku swiftly realizes that Kratos had a point. With the way things were now, even if he wanted to he probably couldn't take down Kratos before Yggdrasill arrived. And seeing as how there was little point to the boy sticking around this particular planet, the teenage Overlord started to get back on his feet, dispelling his sword while smiling at the man in front of him.

"Hehe, yeah, I guess I only have two options, don't I? So if I'm going to fight, then I'm going to fight on the side of the Chosen One and her friends." Riku makes his position clear as day to Kratos, and then proceeds to mention as the man looks at him with a brief hint of surprise on his face "I can't blame you for trying to make me think that I was further along in the past, but I know better than to be tricked like that."

"Is that so?" Kratos replies with. "It would be simpler for you to just assist Lord Yggdrasill then to go down this route."

Riku swings his right arm out and summons forth a barrier of wind around his body that brushes aside some of Kratos' hair as it comes into form. The boy looks at Kratos and says to him confidently "If Yggdrasill wants me, then he'll have to come after me himself."

"Then we will see each other again." Kratos calmly points out, and Riku smiles and replies with "You can count on that for sure." With little left to say, the teenage Overlord kicks himself off the ground and flies away from the planet at high speeds.

Kratos turns around and says to himself as he slowly starts to walk off "Hmmm…If he's going to help the Chosen, then he'll be heading for Tethe'alla…I suppose it'll be up to Pronyma and Yuan to bring the Elemental Overlord to Yggdrasill for now."

Outside the purple planet, Riku finds himself rapidly flying towards the blue planet close by. He aims for the right half while tensing his muscles and thinking to himself _"I hope I'm right about this…Tethe'alla, here I come!" _The teenage Overlord breaks through the atmosphere of the planet, his body being encapsulated in fire as he does so.

Down on the planet's surface, we find a single teenage boy climbing around a mountain trail. He wears a red shirt with multiple buttons and two straps wrapped over his shoulders. He also wears two red gloves and boots along with dark-grey pants that have an X-shaped cross of belts that help keep his two swords held beside his body. While his spiked brown hair blows around thanks to the mountain breeze, the boy looks up at the sky and sees a burning speck descending from afar, commenting in a puzzled tone "Huh? What's that supposed to be?"

_Next Time: Meeting with the Chosen's Group_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Meeting at the Fooji Mountains**

After breaking through the planet's atmosphere and breaking away the flames surrounding his body, Riku flips himself around and quickly grinds to a halt as he approaches the surface of the planet's ocean. The speed he leaves himself at causes him to press down against the water, creating a ten foot wide pocket below his feet before he stabilizes himself in place.

Now that the boy had arrived on this world, he saw that he was faraway from any visible landscape. The closest thing he could see was a large mountain ridge at the edge of a continent a mile or so away from where he was levitating. The teenage Overlord folds his arms in front of his chest and stares at the landscape, his heart beating heavily a beat due to how much of an effort he exerted to get down here from the other planet.

"Hmmm…" Riku thinks about his situation for a few seconds before he decides to head off. Looking up towards the sky, the boy finds that the purple planet was no longer visible. Not only that, but a quick glance behind him showed no signs of the dimensional rift splitting the world in half.

"Wish I could recall how they hid both of those anomalies…Oh well, so long as I know they exist that's good enough for me." Riku turns his head back to face the mountain after making that remark, drawing his arms back out and glaring at the tall land mass for a couple more seconds.

Letting out a worried sigh, the teenage Overlord mentions to himself "I really should have thought this out a little more…Nobody on this planet will be using elemental energy, so I'll just be flying around blindly hoping I run into the Chosen One's group."

Riku shakes his head and tries to put on a more confident expression before saying to himself "Guess if I'm going to start anywhere those mountains are probably my best bet. I can get a clearer overlook of the land from there without drawing attention by flying around."

Thus the boy flies off from the center of the ocean towards the mountains, keeping his speed at an almost bare minimum so no one would notice him from afar due to the ripples being left below him as he flies. At his current pace it takes him only three minutes to make it to the face of the mountain, and upon finding that the pathway is a good distance away he chooses to slowly ascend up the side of the mountain until he could land on solid ground.

As expected of a mountain, the pathways were made-up of cracked stone and grass while the faces were composed of a very stable collection of dark brown rocks and bits of moss. The route Riku landed on ascended around the side of the mountain, and it was clear that he wasn't far off from the top. But before he made any further progress he hears a ghastly growl coming from behind.

Glancing over his right shoulder, the boy finds a couple of bizarre monsters readying to approach him. Riku says to himself "Can't waste any time fighting off the wildlife here, but it'll be troublesome if they follow me."

The teenage Overlord extends his right hand out behind and creates a thick wall of fire with a swing of the arm to prevent the monsters from getting any closer. He then comments "Though really, you'd think these monsters would not want to fight a human who can fly…Oh well, guess you can't expect much from a non-sentient species."

Riku then runs off along the mountain path, ascending the remainder of the mountain in about thirty seconds. What greets him past the mountain faces is a scene unfolding between what appears to be two different factions. The boy flinches in surprise and his heart skips a beat, but before he gets close enough for anyone on the mountain top to notice him he slips behind one of the large rocks in the area with a few soundless movements.

Once behind the rock the teenage Overlord takes a quick peek past the edge and then reels back while holding the palms of his hands against the front of the rock, thinking to himself in turn _"There are ten people gathered here already…I shouldn't make a move until I identify them all." _

Riku glances past the rock again to get a prolonged look at everyone gathered. The first thing that draws his attention is the fact that six people are trapped inside of domed barrier composed of 2-D yellow diamonds. It was clear that the one who set up this barrier was the dark-blue, slick light-blue haired person standing a little to the left of the shield with his arms folded slyly in front of his chest. He was joined by two soldiers with advanced looking steel helmets that covered their ears and eyes completely.

Outside the barrier was a teenage girl with flowing, shiny blonde hair and a holy-based white shirt with a similar colored cloth laid over both of her shoulders. The girl was surprisingly stationary, not even budging an inch in spite of the commotion going on in the barrier.

At that moment, the brown-haired teenage swordsman in the barrier was cracking a joking remark at the suave looking red-haired guy near the back of the barrier. The guy sighed and sadly pouted for a moment, and with the way his lips moved afterwards it was clear that he felt a tiny bit guilty for ending up in this barrier.

The blue-haired man states in a confident, authoritative tone towards his two soldiers "You. Retrieve the Rheairds."

The soldiers reply with a swift "Yes, sir!" And as they turn their bodies around afterwards Riku pulls behind the rock and thinks to himself _"I didn't identify them all, but at least I can be certain of where I am and what time period it is…Wait, did he say to seek out the Rheairds?"_

The teenage Overlord glances to the right and notices a mythical, bird-like machine crashed against the ground a few feet away from him. At that point the boy's expression tenses up and his heart's pace fastens as he realizes that the soldier's will have to move around the rock to reach this machine. Riku tries to think of a way to deal with this scenario without being caught, but before he can even budge he hears a voice proclaim in a deeply puzzled manner "Hey! What do you think you're doing here?!"

Riku swiftly looks to the left and sees the soldier wearing the purple cloths looking straight at him, which causes him to leap onto his feet without saying a word. The soldier reaches into the right part of his armor and begins to pull out a whip while saying "I'm taking you in to Lord Yuan. Don't try and resist, human!"

Now that his cover was blown by this single soldier, there was really no need to go for secrecy and subtlety. The boy sighs and comments "You should have just said nothing and walked away…" Before he thrusts his left hand out and releases a blast of air that strikes the soldier in the stomach and launches him straight off the side of the mountain, where as he descends towards the ocean he lets out a surprised yell that alerts the blue-haired man called Yuan about what's going on.

The man turns himself around quickly, interrupting his conversation with another figure as he exclaims in as composed of a manner as possible "What is going on over there?!"

Yuan looks at the boy, who was now halfway extended past the rock thanks to his last attack and says "I missed one?!" Growling slightly at his miscalculation.

His company, a middle-aged looking woman wearing a pants-less red and black skin-suit with a golden helmet covering her green hair and levitating plates of some sort floating around her body, comments on the sudden appearance of this mysterious boy by saying respectively towards Yuan "The reports said that there were only seven people in the Chosen's group. Don't tell me I was misinformed."

Yuan replies with "You weren't, Pronyma. Just continue your mission to hand the Chosen over to Yggdrasill, I will deal with this sudden nuisance."

The woman nods her head and turns to head towards the blonde-haired girl while Yuan slowly approaches the boy and says to the remaining soldier "Continue with the Rheiards…It'll just take you a little longer to get the task down now."

When the soldier departs Yuan has finished moving towards Riku, who walks out behind the rock all the way and stands before the man, finding the fact that he is a few inches taller than himself to be a little intimidating when combined with his calm and confident stare. Yuan keeps his arms held behind the front of his cape and says to the boy in a serious, inquiring tone "Just who the hell are you supposed to be?"

Riku could tell that Yuan was itching for a fight, even if he likely wasn't expecting a battle against him specifically. Remembering that the man was almost equal to Kratos in strength, the boy drew his helix-bladed sword and bent down in a battle stance before setting the blade on fire. Yuan flinches momentarily and holds his right hand past his cape slightly before mentioning "Those flames…And that wind blast…Could it be that you're-"

"N…No!" A feminine, panicked cry draws both Riku and Yuan's attention away from each other. The man turns around and is once again surprised as he recognizes the sound coming from the blonde-haired girl, who currently had Pronyma's hands approaching the ruby crystal wrapped in gold below her neck.

"This is a birthday present that Lloyd gave me!" The girl exclaimed, valiantly defying Pronyma's attempt to remove the gold border around her crystal.

Inside the barrier, the young, pointy eared boy with ruffled silver hair and teal-blue clothes said in quiet shock that swiftly changed into an uplifted exclamation "C-Colette…spoke!" Swinging his left arm out, the brown-haired swordsman asked of his friend "Colette! Are you back to normal?!"

Pronyma, with her eyes widened in disbelief, slowly backs away from Colette as the girl turns to face the barrier and folds her hands in front of her chest, puzzled about what was going on as she asks "What? Why is everyone…inside that thing?" Her overall tone was kind and subdued, which was a huge contrast to the harsh and surprised tone Yuan takes as he proclaims in regards to the situation "Impossible!"

Shaking his head as though he briefly believes that what was happening is a dream, Yuan goes on to state "There's no way that pitiful Key Crest could restrain the Cruxis Crystal!"

The suave-looking man lets out an impressed whistle, saying to the brown-haired swordsman "Wow…not bad at all, Lloyd."

Pronyma, left staring at the backside of the Chosen in stunned silence, breaks it by stating "How could this happen? …" Realizing that things were unchanged in her plans, Pronyma regains her haughty composure and states "Still, in the end, it is but a worthless bauble. It shan't last long! Now, it is time for you come with me!"

Pronyma floats forward to try and take Colette by her left arm, but upon feeling the woman's touch the girl reaches into her dress and pulls out two pearly rings. Swinging her body around Colette smacks Pronyma in the chest with her right ring, pushing the woman away while she bitterly declares "Let me go!"

However, Colette put too much forward moment into swinging her body around and ends up kicking her left foot against a solid, circular device. The cloak surrounding it drops as it starts to short-circuit, and Colette finds herself quickly going off-balance.

Her serious expression fades into one of awkward surprise as she swings her arms around to try and delay the inevitable, but it only takes two seconds for her to fall on her butt right as the top of the glowing orange device starts releasing smoke from the center. Colette drops her rings and looks at what she had done, giggling slightly and putting on an embarrassed expression as she says "Heh…Whoops."

But Colette, with little of an idea that the barrier trapping her friends had fallen, assumes the worst of what she did and says in a stuttered tone "Oh…oh, no! I broke it!"

The suave looking man smiles and looks at Colette, saying in a slick sounding congratulatory tone "All right! Good job, my little Colette! I think I'm falling in love! "

Off to the sides, Riku ponders just how the man said " " while at the same time looking at Yuan, who was staring flabbergasted at the fact that everything was falling apart. The man says "The only good thing that's happened is that I reclaimed the Rheiards, and even that is likely to backfire on me if this keeps up."

The teenage Overlord looks around and notices that the lone soldier has managed to clear the area of Rheiards somehow, leading to him thinking to himself _"Shouldn't have been focusing on Yuan, I could have prevented that from happening" _before turning to face Colette and her freed friends once more.

The young boy has a jolly laugh at Colette falling over, saying as he barely contains his tearful joy "Hahaha! Now that's our Colette!" The woman in the orange robe who had a similar type of hair-style as the boy sighs and says while rubbing her fingers against her forehead "Some things never change…"

In the back of the group, the black-haired female wearing an ivory kunoichi outfit with revealing cleavage groans and says as though she was recalling a past experience "That brought back some painful memories…"

While Colette rises to her feet and puts her rings away, Lloyd smiles as brightly as he possibly could and runs forward while exclaiming his friend's name. Once the two stood close together, the girl happily holds her hands in front of her body and says while closing her eyelids "Lloyd! Oh Lloyd…Thank you for the present! Is so happy…I was really happy, but there wasn't anything I could do at the time besides-"

Lloyd holds his hands out and cups them around Colette's own, stopping her mid-sentence to say in a comforting tone "It's okay…Don't worry about it."

While those two shared a tender moment, only the woman in the orange robe was aware of her surroundings. Glancing over at Pronyma as she takes out her staff and prepares to interrupt the scene with a magical attack, the woman proclaims "Lloyd, Colette, behind you!"

As the two turn to face Pronyma, the woman angrily proclaims as he face slightly contorts in fury "You impudent humans! Prepare to die!" With a swing of her staff Pronyma launches a large red lion-headed projectile at Lloyd and Colette.

Lloyd reaches for one of his swords, but before he can deal with the attack Riku leaps between him and Pronyma while using his sword to cut the projectile down in one fell swoop. Naturally, Lloyd and his group of allies are puzzled by the boy's sudden appearance.

Pronyma lowers her staff slowly and then glares over at Yuan, saying to him in a somewhat disappointed tone "I thought you said you were going to deal with this nuisance?"

Yuan folds his arms in front of his chest and replies harshly with "And you said you were going to bring the Chosen to Yggdrasill. It seems I'm not the only one whose had their plans foiled today."

Pronyma growls and turns her head to look at the boy while directing one more comment at Yuan "Then allow me to correct BOTH of our mistakes, Lord Yuan!"

Riku glances back at Lloyd and Colette while holding his sword off to the side, putting the swordsman back on track by saying "She's not safe yet! Hurry up and draw your swords!"

Lloyd snaps out of his confusion and grabs onto the handles of his thin bladed swords, pulling both out at the same time while saying to Colette "Some of you should stand back and protect Colette, the rest of us will handle this woman!"

Colette turns to Lloyd and says to him "I-I'm fine Lloyd, really, I am. I can help you out, honest!" Lloyd shakes his head and protests to her offer, saying to her in turn "I'm not going to risk that again Colette! Please, just stand back for now and rest a bit…"

Feeling the heavy amount of melancholic concern in Lloyd's voice, Colette nods her head and agrees to what Lloyd asked for her to do. She walks off to the side, and the pointy-eared boy and woman walk over to assist Lloyd. The boy pulls out a kendama toy while the woman pulls out a golden staff with a medium-sized blue orb in the center of it. The boy grins at Lloyd and says "Lets show her what we got Lloyd!"

Lloyd says "Genis…Raine…" In a happy tone of voice. During that time, Riku walks back and stands beside Lloyd, holding his sword off to the side before the brown-haired swordsman looks at him and says with a little suspicion in his voice "What's your name?"

Riku glances briefly at Lloyd and says "Riku. And yours?" Trying his hardest not to show even a hint that he already knew everyone's name here.

"Lloyd. Lloyd Irving." The swordsman replies with. Genis, Raine, Lloyd and Riku then turn to look at Pronyma, who swings her staff down in front of her legs and exclaims "You will all pay for making a fool of Twilight Pronyma, Leader of the Desian Grand Cardinals!"

While the four began their battle with Pronyma, Yuan backed off a fair distance to avoid getting swept up in the collateral of the battle. As he stood back he stared at Riku and murmured "Lets see if I'm right here…"

Meanwhile, the suave-looking man, feminine ninja and young pink-haired girl stand around Colette and hope that their friends and the mysterious boy can take down Pronyma.

Pronyma makes the first move by swinging her staff out in front of her while floating back, creating a glyphic seal below her body that is purple in color. After a couple seconds she raises her staff towards the sky while her plates spread outward, causing a dark sphere of energy to start collapse between all four of her opponents.

Genis and Raine leap back out of the way while Lloyd and Riku run straight at Pronyma. Raine holds her staff in front of her body and begins to cast a spell while Genis flips the ball of his kendama around as a means of concentrating while he too readies some magic.

Lloyd runs until he's a few feet close to Pronyma, where he proceeds to hold his swords behind himself and charge forth with his left shoulder. The Desian Leader folds two of her plates in front of her body and pulls her body back, letting Lloyd collide with them while smiling at the futility of his move. Lloyd even tries to follow up on his shoulder charge by pulling back and raising his left sword with enough momentum to make him leap into the air and launch a beast-head projectile against Pronyma's plates that, but even then this only pushes the Desian back a few feet.

While Lloyd lands on the ground Riku descends from a jump he made mere moments go and slams his sword against the ground, puncturing through it hard enough to create cracks the extend below Pronyma's body. The cracks glow orange as the Desian Leader recognizes the severity of the attack and quickly uses her staff to cast a barrier around her body that blocks the eruption of magma that Riku creates from the crack.

But while Pronyma was distracted by the two-front assault by Riku and Lloyd, Raine raises her staff into the air and releases a bright glow while stating the word "Charge!" The bright light transfers to Genis, who smiles thankfully at his companion as he finishes using his kendama to charge up a spell. The ball drops atop the kendama and Genis lifts it into the air while enthusiastically stating "Stalagmite!"

Using the cracks created by Riku, Genis is able to quickly summon forth a large rocky Stalagmite from the ground right as Pronyma's barrier vanishes. The Desian Leader looks shocked for a brief moment as she's forced to glide back while folding her plates behind her body. The sharp tip of the stalagmite scratches the front of Pronyma's helmet so cleanly that bits of her hair are brought out afterwards.

"_That level of magic…" _Pronyma comments in her mind as she glances over at Genis and Raine before making a quick observation _"Of course…They are half-elves." _The Desian Leader recognizes the two spell casters as a high-priority threat then and there and points her staff at them, summoning a light-blue glyphic circle beneath her body that would only take a few seconds to charge.

Riku stands up and puts away his sword for the time being, raising one hand up and positioning the fingers like a pistol, taking aim at Pronyma's right hand while trying to concentrate electricity into the fingertip. Meanwhile Lloyd runs right by him to disrupt Pronyma's spell as well, forgetting just long enough that her plates were still a factor in this battle. The Desian Leader swings them back into position to block Lloyd's two sword slash, smirking at him all the while.

The teenage Overlord finds that he isn't able to produce electricity, an act which puzzles him for but a few seconds before Pronyma's spell cast drags his attention away. The raising of the Desian Leader's plates pushes Lloyd away, and the boy turns around and says to Genis and Raine "Watch out!"

Genis backs off as a circle of pure cold starts to form around his and Raine's feet. But Raine stays still as a rising tornado of frost begins to consume her body, holding her staff in front of her body to cast a spell while the young boy states in fear "Sis, what are you doing?!"

Raine takes multiple hits from the winding frost tornado, and though her concentration is momentarily broken she smiles and says "This is an elementary level spell. I expected more from the leader of the Desians."

After taking enough damage, a red jewel on the cuff of her right sleeve starts to glow as her body gets covered by a foggy black aura. Suddenly, the frost tornado barely affects Raine, and with all of her focus she concentrates on Pronyma's general direction and starts charging up a spell as a glyphic circle of pure light forms around her feet. A vibrant circle is formed around Pronyma's feet as a glimmer of light pierces through above her. Before the Desian Leader can react, Raine swings her staff forward and casts in a serious tone "Take this…Ray!"

Immediately afterwards Pronyma is struck with a solid bolt of light from above that hits her with enough force to make her flinch and freeze in place for a few seconds. Raine then lowers her staff and pants a bit as the aura fades around her body. Lloyd turns at Pronyma and then says to Raine while swinging his swords out to the side "You rock professor!"

Lloyd runs at Pronyma while the Desian Leader is stumbling back into full consciousness, performing at least a few sword slashes across her body, managing to break through the cloth and draw blood from the skin. But Pronyma recovers and closes her plates in front of her body to block Lloyd off, showing a little bit of anger at the fact that a human managed to scar her body. While the plates blocked Lloyd off from any frontal assaults the Desian Leader quickly used her staff to performing healing magic on her open wounds, sealing them up before she lost too much blood.

Pronyma watches as Lloyd stands back and waits for another chance to attack, while the mysterious boy leaps at her and prepares to perform a mid-air dive with his right hand coated in flames. The Desian Leader keeps her composure and uses her staff to cast a spell underneath the boy, proclaiming "Agarazium!" as a medium-sized neon seal opens up and releases a pillar of rings that block Riku's descent and launch him back through the air.

Lloyd charges forward while Pronyma swings her staff in front of her and proclaims "Leonezium!" To launch out another lion-headed projectile that forces the swordsman to cross both of his swords in front of his body to avoid being launched back. His feet drag along the ground for a few feet from recoil, but he quickly pulls one sword back and then swings the other one along the ground to send a fanged projectile at Pronyma.

The attack hits the very bottom of her feet, causing her to lean forward slightly in response. This is followed up by Pronyma holding her staff forward and creating a purple glyphic circle around the bottom of her body. "Dark Sphere!" She proclaims as simultaneously Raine states "Photon!"

A collapsing black sphere around Lloyd's body is swiftly counteracting by a glowing yellow expansion of light that completely negates the Dark Sphere without harming Lloyd in the process. At the same time, Genis uses his kendama as a focus point to cast "Thunder Blade!" The ground around Pronyma is surrounded by an electric circle as a magical blade of thunder comes crashing down upon the Desian Leader. The initial hit stuns her in place, preventing her from moving as the blade detonates in a dome of electricity.

Pronyma finds herself falling down, but places one hand against the ground before she lands on one knee. Her skin and clothes were partially scorched, and the plates around her spasm slightly. But she rises back onto her feet and says in a furious tone "You will not make a fool of me!"

In that very moment a blast of air smacks Pronyma from the left, pushing her off of her feet and sending her hurtling off the side of the mountain. Riku pulls his wind surrounded hand back and thinks to himself _"So Wind still works anyways…" _

He then glances at Lloyd as the swordsman looks back at him, saying politely "Be my guest Lloyd." Lloyd nods his head in an appreciative manner and then swiftly leaps off the side of the mountain after Pronyma.

He lands on the slanted, rocky face and grinds down quickly after the tumbling Pronyma, who recovers after a couple seconds and presses her golden shoe tips against the rocks to slow herself down. Noticing Lloyd coming after her, the Desian Leader takes her plates and holds them in front of her. The two meet in a couple seconds, and Lloyd starts off by slamming both of his swords against her plates.

Pronyma is forced to take the attack without fighting back, as sliding down the mountain made it difficult to focus on her spells. Lloyd pulls both of his swords beside his body and then rapidly stabs them outward at the plates while proclaiming "Sword Rain!" Repeated jabs of the pointed tips against the two weakened plates in front of Pronyma's body eventually get cracked apart, leaving her body vulnerable much to her surprise.

"This is preposterous!" Pronyma proclaims. Nearing a ledge at the bottom of the rocky slant, the Desian Leader kicks away from the mountain side and leaves Lloyd to skid onto the platform. Pronyma folds her arms in front of her chest and says to the swordsman "If Lord Yuan wasn't interested in you, I would destroy the platform you stand on. Instead, I shall capture the Chosen just as originally planned!"

Pronyma uses her plates to fly back up the mountainside, leaving Lloyd to flip himself around and say "No…Colette!" Without wasting any time, the swordsman runs back up the mountain in pursuit of the faster Pronyma.

Once the Desian Leader arrives at the top of the mountain, she stares angrily at both Genis and Raine before glancing over at Colette and saying "I will capture you at any costs for Lord Yggdrasill!"

The suave-looking man was about to draw his sword to fight against Pronyma, but then the unexpected happens. "Pronyma, it's time for you to stand down." The words come from Yuan, who says them with a hint of urgency in his voice.

Pronyma, who was about ready to activate the red jewel on her right bracelet, glances over at the man and says to him in surprise "What? But what about the Cho-"

"You do not understand what you are up against here. Take a look to the right you fool." Yuan's harsh words reach Pronyma's ears, causing her to turn in that direction and notice how the mysterious boy was almost seconds away from incinerating her with a charged up ball of fire.

Pronyma scowls and hesitantly admits "…Fine, I shall retreat for now." Folding her arms against her chest and moving her plates into a circle around her body, the Desian Leader flies up into the sky to escape just as Lloyd finishes climbing up the mountain.

"Wait! Come back!" Lloyd proclaims, swinging one sword off to the side as he feels a bit upset at the Desian escaping. But then he looks ahead of himself and sees that Yuan is still standing about, and with a determined look in his eyes he states "This is the perfect opportunity! Yuan! I'm going to settle our score right now!"

Yuan looks at Lloyd and raises an eyebrow in surprise as the swordsman runs at him ready to cut him down with his swords. But as he makes his move a blur of red and ivory runs across the top of the mountain, interjecting into Lloyd's attempt to fight with Yuan by drawing out his sword and deflecting Lloyd's slash with relative ease.

Right after deflecting the slash, the figure sheathes his blade back into his hilt and immediately folds his arms, looking at the surprised Lloyd with a bit of disappointment on his face. Riku dispels his flames and looks to the left, freezing up slightly at the sight of Kratos' sudden appearance in the area. Lloyd naturally exclaims the man's name in shock, while Yuan, who now suddenly sprouted pink energy wings similar to Kratos' own behind him, glares at Kratos with an annoyed expression and inquires "…What are you doing here?"

Kratos ignores Lloyd for the moment and addresses Yuan calmly with "Leave, Yuan. Lord Yggdrasill has summoned you."

Yuan, who has had a bad enough day as is, growls angrily and glances away from Kratos, asking him thereafter "Are you taking the Chosen?" To which Kratos replies swiftly with "No…we shall leave her for now. It's the toxicosis…And not just that…"

Kratos turns his head at the end of his sentence, glancing at the teenage Overlord so briefly out of the corner of his eye that it was a surprise that Yuan picked up on the clue. Yuan nods his head after that, accepting the command that had been given to him as he turns to face Lloyd and says "Hmmm…It seems you battle will have to wait, Lloyd."

Lloyd glances at Yuan with a puzzled expression, but the man turns around and folds his arms into his cape before leaping off the ground and flying off towards the sky. The feminine ninja comments on the man's departure with "He's an angel too?!"

Lloyd runs to the end of the mountain, declaring with most of his might "Damnit, Yuan! Wait!" Kratos, puzzled by the swordsman's action, turns towards Lloyd and asks of him "…What are you doing?"

Lloyd turns to face Kratos and snaps at him for his question with a simple "What?" To which Kratos in turn replies with "Why have you come all the way here to Tethe'alla?"

"I'm here to save Colette." Is the answer Lloyd gives. Kratos then sighs and asks of the boy "What good will saving the Chosen do? The relation of the two worlds vying for each other's mana will not change. Their positions have merely been reversed by the regeneration ritual."

The feminine ninja looks a little worried by everything Kratos was saying. She steps forward and asks of the man "Has Tethe'alla already begun to decline?"

Kratos turns to face the edge of the mountain, unfolding his arms and pointing out to the tower in the distance that reaches up to the very atmosphere of the planet. Though Kratos was addressing the Chosen's group, Riku could tell that the gesture was meant to direct him towards the tower. "The Tower of Salvation can still be seen from this world as well. As long as that exists here, it means that this world is still flourishing. Although, in the event that the Chosen becomes Martel's vessel…"

Kratos turns back around and looks at the feminine ninja, saying in a serious tone to her "Tethe'alla will surely bid farewell to its era of prosperity."

Everyone goes silent for a few seconds once Kratos was done, with the ninja and the suave man taking the explanation the hardest. Lloyd starts clenching his fists after sheathing his swords, and after punching the air to the right of him he exclaims "Dammit, isn't there anything that can be done?!" This proclamation grabs Kratos' interest, and he turns to face the boy as he continues. "Yggdrasill's the one that built this twisted world!"

Kratos responds in the utmost serious tone "Lord Yggdrasill does not consider it twisted. If you want to do something about it, use your own head."

Lloyd calms down slightly as Kratos speaks, and upon looking up at the red-haired man he hears him say kindly "…I thought you weren't going to make any more mistakes?"

The swordsman looks at Kratos, his eyes filled with determination as he declares to him then and there "Yeah, I'll do it. This stupid system of two worlds stealing mana from each other…I swear I'll change it!"

At that point, Kratos cracks a barely visible smile and chuckles before kindly saying to Lloyd "Well, do your best."

With everything he needed to say off his chest, Kratos slowly walks off and passes by Lloyd, turning his head slightly to give Riku one single glance before he looks towards the sky and kicks off the ground, taking flight away from the mountaintop mere seconds later.

With the enemies gone, the Chosen's group is left to ponder things over for a few seconds. Genis then comments after stretching his facial expression a bit in realization "I remember now! That Pronyma was the one on the projector at the Asgard ranch!"

The feminine ninja said in turn "Yeah, and she admitted that she was the Desian leader!" Genis follows up on this by mentioning "And now that Kratos came to interfere and all…It looks like the Desians and Cruxis are one in the same." Raine adds her own view to the mix by saying "It would appear that Yuan is connected to Cruxis as well."

Lloyd, out of a combination of confusion and hot-bloodedness, closes his left eyelid and tilts his head while groaning and saying "Gahhh…This is all so confusing! Wouldn't it be simpler to say they're all our enemies?"

Raine looks at Lloyd and says to him kindly "Yes, that means we must be careful of everyone, including the Renegades." Everyone nods their head in agreement of that decision. Genis then turns towards Colette and smiles at her, asking curiously "Colette, is everything else back to normal? Besides your voice, can you feel things and such?"

Colette grins warmly and folds her hands together, chuckling cutely and saying "Yup, I think I'm okay. Thanks everyone…And I'm sorry I made all you worry so much. Hey, you know what? I think I'm hungry for the first time in a long while."

Lloyd quickly pops a smile and chuckles, saying to his good friend "That's great!" Colette opens her eyes after concentrating for a bit, summoning forth a pair of violet angelic wings behind her body much to everyone's surprise. Colette says to her friends with a little disappointment in her voice "…It looks like I still have wings though."

Lloyd's happiness naturally deflates upon realizing this, and he lets out a quiet "Oh…" as he glares concernedly at Colette. The suave man looks at Colette and cocks a sly smile, saying in the most gentlemanly tone he can muster "Hmmm. Just like I thought. Colette is definitely cuter when she smiles!"

Hearing this lovely compliment, Colette turns towards the man and tries to draw on her memories before saying "Let's see, you're…Zelos?" She had a little lack of confidence in her voice, but Zelos snaps his fingers and grins a little wider before saying "Haha! You remembered my name! We Chosen have to stick together, you know what I mean?!"

Colette, oblivious to what Zelos was trying to insinuate here, responds with "Okay!" Lloyd naturally rolls his eyes at Zelos' actions. To switch away the discussion for a moment, Raine mentions to the group "Now what shall we do? Since Colette has regained her soul there's no need for us to head immediately back to Sylvarant, but…"

Lloyd says to everyone there "Well obviously we have to find a way to save both worlds and end this cruddy Chosen system before anymore have to suffer like Colette…But before we do that there's still one thing that's been bugging me."

The swordsman glances over his left shoulder at Riku, who had merely been standing off to the side waiting to be acknowledged again since he was allowing the group to deal with the aftermath of the Pronyma battle. Everyone's eyes were on the boy, a couple of them feeling that his presence was a bit suspect, but Lloyd asks of him "Riku, was it? You think you can tell us what you're doing up here?"

_Next Time: Infiltrating Meltokio_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Into the Sewers**

With Lloyd extending a curiosity born invite to Riku, the teenage Overlord smiles and says "I was waiting for the right time to explain myself. Looked like you were enjoying a happy moment with the Chosen." He starts to walk forward to join up with the group, but Raine walks beside Lloyd and presses down on his extended hand while glaring suspiciously at the boy.

"Hold on a moment Lloyd. How do we know for certain that this boy is on our side?" Raine asks, something Genis agrees with as he swings his right hand out and mentions "Yeah Lloyd, don't you think it's really odd that he just happened to be here at the same time as Yuan and Pronyma?"

Lloyd turns at Genis and says "Oh come on Genis, give him a chance. He wouldn't have helped us against Pronyma if he was our enemy."

Raine folds her arms and looks at Lloyd, reminding him in a calm tone "Kvar and Magnius were our enemies as well. That didn't stop Kratos from cutting down his allies while he was in our group."

Lloyd turns back at his professor and takes her words into consideration, mumbling to himself "Ugh…You're right professor. But think about it, it's seven of us against one of him. If he tries to betray us, we can just outnumber him, right?"

Raine hums and says "Hmmm…I don't think it's worth the risk." While Raine and Lloyd discussed the risks of trusting the boy, Zelos interjects between the two's conversation with a slick tone and says "Come on now my wise young beauty, there's an easy way to find out what side the kid's on."

Zelos turns towards Riku and asks of him "Hey kid, show us your arms." The teenage Overlord nods his head and complies to the command, and after pulling his sleeves back he holds his arms vertically in front of his body and moves them around so the group can get a good look at them. Zelos murmurs for a few seconds before saying confidently to the others "See? He doesn't have an Exsphere on him. Even the grunts in Cruxis and the Desian forces have one on them."

Raine groans lightly and says to Zelos "Huh…That just raises more questions than it does answers, but I suppose you're right. For now, we can trust this Riku person."

Lloyd says excitedly "Alright!" He then turns towards Riku as the boy lowers his arms, exclaiming to him "You hear that Riku, you can come over here now!"

The teenage Overlord bows his head and jokingly says "What an honor I've been granted." He then lifts his body back up and smiles as he walks over to the Chosen's group. Once he stands amongst them Zelos points out "Ok, now that we've finished up with that little distraction, shouldn't we be making our way back to Sybak to help sweet little Presea?"

Genis comments "I appreciate your priorities Zelos, but haven't you forgotten that the bridge back to Sybak is down?"

The feminine ninja says to the group "Hmm…I have contacts in Meltokio. We could try asking them for help."

Genis looks over at the girl and says to her "But we're wanted traitors Sheena, how are we going to get back there?"

Zelos grins the brightest grin, slyly saying to the group as he waves his right fingers in the air "Leave that to me. I know Meltokio like the back of my head." Lloyd looks at Zelos and says jokingly "The last time we listened to your suggestion we ended up in a trap."

The suave man's confidence breaks down a bit after that, and he slumps forward and says in a pitiful voice "Why you gotta bring me down like that Lloyd, that was an honest mistake."

Lloyd murmurs and points out "Welllll…I suppose you do at least live in Meltokio. We're counting on you Zelos."

Zelos lifts his head right up as though he was just faking pity, saying with all the energy he can muster "All right then! Now my hunnies, we're off to Meltokio!" With a swift 180, Zelos begins to walk down the mountain with the rest of the group following. Colette chuckles at Zelos' antics, and before he joins up with everyone else Lloyd turns at his friend and says "Colette?"

Colette pauses and says in a puzzled tone "Hmmm? What is it Lloyd?" Lloyd also pauses hesitantly before saying to her "…Welcome back." The girl smiles brightly and thanks her friend, saying "…Hehe, I'm glad to be back."

The two then run forward to catch up with the rest of the group. Riku is standing in the center of them all, listening somewhat as everyone communicates with each other to pass the time while they descend the mountain. All the while the boy holds his fingers out and tests the limits of his powers after the flub with his lightning element earlier. He is able to create a fire spark, a tiny seed, a little water fountain and a fingertip-sized tornado before he runs out of elements to use.

Curling his hand into a fist while dispelling the tiny elemental projections, Riku sighs and whispers to himself "Geez, why am I always losing some of my powers." As he tries to see if he could communicate with Takashi inside of the dark dimension he ends up glancing to the right, where Raine can be seen glancing at him with a curious look in her eyes.

Raine looks away upon being detected, but the damage was done and Riku asks kindly of the mage "You're welcome to ask me any questions you want, Raine."

Raine sighs and rubs her forehead, projecting her thoughts out through her mouth by mentioning "I don't even know where to begin with you…You don't have an Exsphere yet you were able to stand up to a Desian. Not only that, but you can use elemental magic without an incantation or glyph."

Sheena glances over her left shoulder, seeing a perfect opportunity to not have to listen to Zelos' flirtatious comments as she asks of the boy "Here's a good question. What is your story Riku?"

Zelos folds his arms behind his head and sighs disappointingly, saying in a joking tone "Oh come on Sheena, we might be a few hours away from Meltokio but that doesn't mean we should fill that time listening to a long story."

Riku waves his hand out and says to Zelos with a smile on his face "Eh, I just need to give you an abridged story anyways. Most of my tale isn't relevant to you guys."

Zelos shrugs and says as he looks back on ahead "Do whatever you want, nobody's stopping ya, I guess…" Deep down the man was hoping that somebody would be against the story, but Lloyd quickly interjects with interest and says "Go for it Riku, we're all listening." Which adds enough fuel to the fire that Zelos basically gives up and decides to listen in on the story anyways, but not before mumbling to himself "Damn it Lloyd…"

"This may come as a surprise to you, but I'm not from this world." Riku starts off his story with a bit of a bomb, which makes everyone glance at him with surprise in their eyes before Raine's eyes light up and she comments "Interesting, so you're an alien."

Riku nervously chuckles and mentions "No no no don't get the wrong idea Raine. I'm a human just like most of you here. I just happen to be from another world. It's a luscious green and blue planet called Earth. I'm an Elemental Overlord, a being capable of controlling nine elements ranging from Fire to Darkness. My goal is to travel to various worlds and help out in whatever way I can manage. Thus I ended up here."

"That does explain quite a bit." Raine says after her excitement had been lost from the fact that Riku wasn't actually an alien. "But how did you know where to find us?" She then asks.

"Ummm…" Riku, naturally not expecting Raine to asks such a question, has to awkwardly make up an answer to avoid revealing too many details. "When I first arrived on this world I ran into that Kratos guy, and he mentioned something about the Fooji Mountains and the Chosen before he left. So I researched a bit about the Chosen at the Sybak library before I came over to help you guys out."

At the end of Riku's explanation, Colette chimes in excitedly by running beside Riku and pumping her fists up, mentioning to him "Wow! So you're a real-life superhero, that's so cool! Come on Riku, tell us all your catchphrase!"

The teenage Overlord glares blank-eyed at Colette and blinks twice before stuttering "Umm…C-Catchphrase?"

Colette nods her head and says "Every superhero has a catchphrase. Something that strikes fear into the hearts of enemies like 'Beware evil-doors, for I have come to deliver righteous judgment!' or 'Give me your name, and I shall give you mine!' "

Lloyd butts in at that point, saying to Colette in a reminding tone "Umm…Colette. That second one's my catchphrase, remember?"

Colette blinks awkwardly and pulls herself back so she can turn to look at Lloyd, and after sticking her tongue out she chuckles and says "Hehe, sorry Lloyd…That slipped my mind."

Riku says to the Chosen afterwards "Don't worry about it Colette, I get what you're saying. Sadly, I don't think a catchphrase is necessary. I really don't think of myself as a superhero anyways."

Colette's bubbly laugh afterwards ensures Riku that the girl wasn't too saddened by the lack of a catchphrase from him. After discussing this matter with the Chosen, Riku turns back and notices both Raine and Zelos pondering something to themselves, leading to him thinking _"Guess they didn't completely buy my story…It's not going to be as easy to keep my knowledge of this world away from them compared to usual." _

After ending up off the mountain, the group started to cross the grassy plains of Tethe'alla in the northwest direction to head to Meltokio. They passed the time fending off some of the rabid wildlife and having conversations with each other, which ensured that the three hour trek went by quickly. The grassy plains began to transform into a more vibrant environment as the vast, rich kingdom of Meltokio slowly comes into view.

There was a large wall surrounding the kingdom, making it difficult to see much besides the castle at the very top of the area as the group approaches the bronze gate, which is protected by two pike wielding, silver armored guards. Zelos continues to take the lead of the group as they approach the gate, but the two guards walk close together and cross their pikes to block the advance of the group. The left guard says "Chosen One. I'm sorry, but I cannot allow you to pass. While it pains me terribly to say this, you and your companions are currently wanted."

Zelos says to the guards "Well, thanks for not trying to arrest us right away." The group then turns around and backs away until they are out of earshot of the guards, where Lloyd points out to the Tethe'alla Chosen "Got any other bright ideas Zelos?"

Zelos tries to stay suave while he looks at Lloyd and says to him "Now, now, just hang on. I told you I had a plan. For my cute hunnies, I'll show you a special entrance, just follow me."

Zelos leads the group off to the left of the gate without the guards watching, and it only takes them a few seconds for them to arrive in front of a half-built grate underneath Meltokio. Genis comments in confusion "Whoa, what is this place?"

"The underground sewer. Waste water from the city flows out from here." Zelos explains. Lloyd says afterwards "Huh, that's a pretty good way of sneaking in." While Riku mentions afterwards in a joking tone "Though it's not exactly something I'd call a 'special entrance for your hunnies.'"

Zelos glances at Riku with a fake look of sadness on his face before he says "Aww, why you got to be like that? It may not be the cleanest thing in the world, but at least I can bring my hunnies back into Meltokio when I stay out too late at night."

Colette blinks in confusion and asks "Huh? Why would you wait until night to come back?" Lloyd and Genis groan at Colette's question, but their groans come out even louder when Zelos replies in a slick tone of voice "…Hmm, if you'd like me to show you, I'll be happy to educate you tonight."

In response to Zelos' lechery, Sheena glares and scowls at him, causing the Chosen of Tethe'alla to melt momentarily as he comments "Hey now it was just a joke! Don't get jealous Sheena."

Sheena pulls back a bit and slaps her forehead, groaning and saying in disbelief to Zelos "You have GOT to be kidding me!" Colette looks at Sheena and tilts her head, saying in bewilderment "Ummm…Why is Sheena upset?"

Raine quietly defuses the whole debacle by stating to Colette "You'll understand when you're older." The little pink-haired girl, Presea, says in an almost robotic voice to the group afterwards "Enemy presence detected…There is danger."

Lloyd takes note of Presea's warning and nods his head, saying to everyone afterwards "Yeah, let's be careful." Turning to the grate entrance, the group enters the Meltokio sewers.

Naturally they are swiftly robbed of the light, leaving them with the dark and damp atmosphere surrounding the walls. Thankfully, the sewer is spacious enough to not leave anyone feeling cramped. It doesn't take them long to reach a strange aquamarine altar that projects a tiny pillar of light with an orb in the center of it. If the light wasn't enough, the two lit torches besides it made it's presence here prominent.

"Oh hey, it's another one of those altars for the Sorcerer's Rings!" Lloyd exclaims before he runs forward past everyone to examine the altar. Riku, in an attempt to keep the charade of knowledge up, asks of Raine "Sorcerer's Ring? What's that?"

The professor responds with "It's a magic focusing device that can utilize different spells depending on the type of altar we run into. Otherwise it's basic ability is to shoot a tiny fireball."

Lloyd holds his right hand in front of the altar, causing the orb of light to transfer itself into the ring and change it's functionality in a flash of light. Lloyd turns around as everyone gathers around him, and while examining the ring the boy says to everyone "Alright, I can't wait to find out what it can do this time! Hi-yah!" With Lloyd enthusiastically touching down on the ring, everyone is consumed in a prolonged flash of light.

When it ends, the area around them seems larger than it was before. Not only that, but everyone was separated a greater distance from each other than they were before. Lloyd blinks a few times and looks around, thinking that something went wrong with the ring before Colette comments in a squeaky sounding voice "Hmm? It looks like the path got wider."

Genis exclaims as he realizes what was going on "No, we got smaller!" His voice was comparable to that of a mouse now. Presea still sounded the same though as he said to the group "…I guess so."

Colette looks at her body and then compares herself to the altar off to the right, saying to everyone "Oh wow, you're right." Lloyd furiously looks at the ring and presses down on it multiple times to try and reverse the effect but to no avail, leading him to comment "We can't do anything like this!"

While Lloyd and a few others were worried about their new size, Zelos naturally remained optimistic and whispered to himself "Oh, I see! Now that I'm this size I can do this and that without anyone finding out it's me…" But with Sheena being close enough she said to him "Oh brother. How can you be thinking about that at a time like this?!"

Riku stood around in disbelief for a few seconds, since it was quite a new experience for him to be this small in stature. The squeaky voice was definitely something else he had to get used to, but he knew that it wouldn't be beneficial to stay this way for long. Looking at the rest of the group, he comments "We should figure out how to get back to normal."

Raine murmurs to himself as she glances at a lone blue panel in the room, and as she walks towards it she says "Now that you mention it…" Upon stepping on the panel, Raine instantly shoots back up to her original height, which catches everyone entirely off-guard.

With everyone just up to her foot in height, when she ends up talking her voice carries quite a bit of weight to it that could have deafened the group had she continued for long "I see. It appears that stepping on these panels will restore us to our normal sizes…"

One after another, the group goes back to their normal heights by standing on the panel, and once they've assembled Lloyd comments "Well, maybe we'll be able to make use of this after all."

The group thus starts to traverse the sewers, using the ring and the panels together to cross spider-webs and thin planks before they come across a slight roadblock in the form of a sealed up stone door. After a moment of silence, everyone turns to glare at Zelos, with Sheena in particular furiously saying to him "Zelos! Didn't you say you knew this route well?!"

"Huh…That's weird. It was never closed when I came through before." Zelos tries to save face with that bit of reassurance, leading to Presea adding to the that comment with her coldly spoken logic "Maybe it was close along with the sealing of the city?"

"Then that means someone expected us to come this way." Raine says. Genis groans and points out in a disbelieving tone "Then we have to find another way around?!"

Riku glances behind himself and notices a turn wheel on the floor below. Looking back at Lloyd, he asks of him "Hey Lloyd, I think I have an idea."

Lloyd turns to the teenage Overlord and says to him "What is it Riku?" Riku gestures his thumb over his shoulder and says to him in response "There's a wheel below us that might be able to open the door. I was thinking maybe you can just shrink Colette down so she can turn it for us. There's a panel nearby too, so she can just return to her normal size afterwards."

Lloyd asks "Why Colette exactly?" Colette walks forward and summons forth her wings in front of Lloyd, turning around as she stands between him and Riku and says with a smile on her face "Because I'm the only one who can fly back up Lloyd."

"I guess you're right Colette, but are you sure you'll be able to turn the wheel? You've never been physically strong." Lloyd says with a bit of concern in his voice. Colette nods her head and says "I'll be fine."

Riku passes beside Colette and gives Lloyd a nod of confidence, and after deciding to have a little more faith in Colette's abilities he holds the Sorcerer's Ring up and tries to press it with a little less force to make sure that only Colette would be shrunk by the light that comes out. The tiny Chosen says in a squeaky, chipper tone "Ok, wish me luck!"

She then turns around and flies off the side of the area, slowly descending with her wings until she lands on the panel below. Back to her normal size, Colette walks over to the wheel and grips her hands on both sides of it, turning it to the left with relative ease while she hears the door opening above her. Once she's done Colette flies back up to join everyone, grinning in front of the dumbfounded Lloyd before saying "Hehe, see Lloyd? I knew I could do it."

"U-Umm…Sorry for not having a little more faith Colette." Lloyd apologizes to his friend, but Colette just lightly brushed it off and says "It's ok Lloyd."

Zelos says "I hate to break up this sweet little moment, but if they are aware of us coming down here we should get a move on before they find us." Reminding everyone of the urgency in getting through the sewers.

The group continue on further through the sewers, using the ring to keep weaving through paths while creating blocks of trash from a nearby compactor to fill in the gaps that get in their way. In a span of ten minutes, the group finally finds themselves nearing the end of the sewers as Zelos comments "Sweet! The exit is just up that staircase!"

As the group walks towards the staircase, Genis glances at Presea and notices that the girl is shivering slightly as though something was bugging her. "Presea…What's wrong?" Genis asks in a concerned tone. "I sense…danger…" Presea replies coldly.

Listening in on the conversation between the two, Zelos proceeds to look up and watches as three people suddenly leap down from above, blocking their path with heavy looking wooden bats in their hands. Two of the men were bald and the other's hair was a dirty brown, fitting the tattered clothing all three men wore on their bodies. The man with hair says to the group as he grins menacingly and glares at them "We've been waiting for you, travelers from Sylvarant."

The bald man at the front says afterwards "The Pope promised to lighten our sentences if we got rid of you. We've got nothing personal against you, but we need you to die!"

The prisoners try to rush all eight people in front of them, and as both Zelos and Lloyd prepare to draw their swords to fend them off Riku merely raises and swipes his right hand out in front of his body to carve a line of fire on the ground in front of the prisoners. All at once they stop running forward to avoid burning their bare feet, and as Riku subtly pulls his hand back Zelos grins and looks over at the prisoners as they nervously back-off from the group.

"Don't know what you were thinking attacking us like this, but since you're down here now…" Zelos takes his hand off of his sword's handle and starts to approach the frightened prisoners, one of whom was saying "T-The Pope never told us there was a magic user in their group! This is not what we signed up for."

"You signed up for murder, you should have brought more than bats if you wanted to carry that out. Now then, which one of you will volunteer to spill what the Pope told you?" Zelos keeps his cool as he gets closer to the prisoners, but before he can make his move all the way someone else leaps down from the staircase above and uses both of his feet to kick Zelos face first onto the ground, taking him completely by surprise as he lets out a proclamation of "Ah!"

Lloyd and the group flinch in surprise at the sudden appearance of this man, and have to take a look at him to see just who he was before they reacted further. The man was cuffed up by rather tough looking chains around his hands, and he wore a white shirt and green pants that could barely fit his rather muscular frame. His long, unkempt blue hair suggested that he had been in prison for a while now, but the glare he gave to the group as he turned his head was enough to tell that his time had not dulled his intimidation.

The man pressed one foot down on Zelos' back to keep him pegged to the floor, saying to everyone involved as he notices Lloyd going for his swords and Riku extending his hand out as though ready to summon his as well "Don't move…If you move, the Chosen dies. Understand?"

Zelos naturally squirms about underneath the man's weight, stating with a naturally high amount of surprise in his voice "Whoa whoa whoa! You think you can get away with doing something like this to the Chosen?"

The man glances down at Zelos for a moment and says "…One who plots the destruction of the world…can no longer be deemed the Chosen." It is at that moment that Zelos stops moving and says a realizing "…Oh…" As he now knows what the Pope told the prisoners to get them on his side.

But seeing as he was still under the foot of this muscular man, Zelos had to swallow his pride a bit as he said kindly "Hey, Lloyd! If you abandon me here, I swear, I'll come back to haunt you!" Zelos adds a ghastly sounding noise at the end of his sentence to further emphasis what he would do.

Lloyd takes his hands off his swords while Sheena sighs behind him, and after taking a moment to consider his options Lloyd sarcastically says "…I just had a sudden, violent urge to abandon you."

But in the end, it's not Lloyd who does something to deal with the prisoner pinning Zelos down, but Presea, who pulls out an axe nearly as big as her petite body and runs at the man. The prisoner understandably flinches in surprise at a little deal charging so robotically at him, and he is forced to leap back as Presea slams her axe down against the ground beside Zelos, cracking the ground apart and leaving Zelos to let out a girlish "Eep!" as the blade of the axe nearly misses his arm.

Wasting little time in getting back onto his feet as Presea and the prisoner exchange looks, Zelos runs behind Lloyd and grabs onto his shoulders while faking a worried shiver, saying "Phew!" as Lloyd glances behind him with a disbelieving look in his eyes and silence in his mouth.

The muscular prisoner looks at Presea for a few seconds, and as though he saw a ghost his eyes suddenly go blank and his body goes numb. Stuttering out the word "Y-You're…" The prisoner slowly tries to approach Presea, but in anger Genis runs past Lloyd and channels magic through his kendama to toss a series of fireballs at the man, who leaps back before he is scorched.

Gathered with the remaining prisoners, the muscular man says hesitantly "…Ugh…retreat for now." One of the bald prisoners says "Damn, these guys are too strong…What the hell is the Pope thinking?"

The four prisoners begin to run off, but before they disappear from sight the muscular one takes one last glance at the frozen Presea and sighs, leaving a mere second later. With Zelos now off his back, Lloyd says happily "Looks like it's over for now." Which Colette follows up on with a merry "Thank goodness everyone's okay!"

As Genis puts his kendama away he walks up beside Presea, who appears to be thinking a little about the man she just attacked. With a concerned stutter, Genis asks "P-Presea…? Are you alright?" The girl says nothing in response and merely begins to walk towards the staircase, causing the young boy to nervously sigh before he moves on with the rest of the group.

As they near the exit, Riku says to Zelos "I hope that guy didn't break your spine." The man says "Please, the guy may have had all those muscles, but there's nothing in both worlds that can break the great Zelos Wilder!"

As he finishes that bit of bravado, he leans forward a bit and subtly groans in pain, leading Riku to sigh and shrug his shoulders in response. Finally arriving at the ladder, the group climbs one after the other up to the top, where they have to shove a circular grate up and off to the side before they can fully exit.

After sealing the sewers, Lloyd lets out a sigh of relief and says "We finally made it into the city." Swiping a bit of sweat off of his forehead brought on by the musty underground astmosphere afterwards.

Sheena says afterwards "Now we can meet my friends at the Elemental Research Laboratory." Colette looks at Sheena and says with an innocently interested voice "Oh, you have a history with that place?"

Sheena nods her head and points out "It's where I learned how to summon. It's also where Corrine was born."

Riku is the next to ask a question "Corrine? Who is Corrine?" As though on cue, a tiny puff of smoke appears on Sheena's right shoulder, summoning forth an adorable little yellow fox-like creature with three water colored tails and a bell wrapped around his neck. The little fox didn't open it's eyelids as it said in an adorable tone of voice "Hello there, I'm Corrine!"

Surprisingly, the teenage Overlord's first reaction upon looking at Corrine for the first time is to crack a wide grin and say to him "Awww! You're adorable!" Riku walks forward to try and pet the little fox, but Corrine quickly scuttles up Sheena's head, nestling himself in her hair to keep out of Riku's reach. The teenage Overlord awkwardly pulls his body back and says "I guess I came on too strong…"

Sheena giggles and lifts her hand up to pet Corrine slightly and calm her down, saying to Riku "Don't worry about it, she's just not good around strangers."

After Corrine has calmed down enough, the group heads over to the Elemental Research Laboratory on the east side of Meltokio. Along the way, Riku looks at the entire city now that he had a better point of view inside. The houses were rich in both design and placement, giving off a perfect atmosphere of a thriving society that was actually a little imposing considering the few cities he had gone through before.

It was only a minute before Riku had to look back ahead to avoid getting too overwhelmed. Once the group reaches the Lab, the boy says to everyone "You guys go ahead and take care of what you need to, I'll stay outside for now."

Lloyd looks back at Riku as everyone pauses and glances at him a moment later. "Hmm? How come Riku?" The teenage Overlord answers with "You said the Pope was after you guys, right? Well since the guy doesn't know what I look like yet, I'll stand guard out here and keep an eye out for any more prisoners or soldiers…Just in case there is one untrustworthy guy in the Lab."

Raine compliments Riku's plan, saying to him kindly "Hmmm, excellent idea. We shouldn't be too long in here, but be careful anyways." The group heads inside afterwards, and Riku stands in front of the door and keeps watch of the area around the building.

While he waits for the group to take care of business, Riku takes an opportunity to think about just what exactly happened to the remainder of his elemental powers. He sits down in front of the door and holds his hand out again, creating a flame at first before moving on the remaining powers, doing his best to keep conspicuous as people passed on by in front of him to take care of their own business.

"Hmmm…Elemental Research Laboratory…Corrine is a Summon Spirit…Summon Spirits are capable of controlling elements…" As Riku puts some information together he clenches his hand into a fist and looks up at the sky in a pondering manner, where he then begins to list off the elements that the Summon Spirits can control "Fire…Water…Wind…Lightning…Earth…Darkness…Ice…Light…"

It was only with the last one that Riku came to a swift realization and said to himself "Son of a bitch I control the same elements as the Summon Spirits here." Now he had a theory about why he only had a limited amount of elements, but before he could get too far into his thoughts he felt a push on the door and quickly got to his feet to get out of the way as the group walked out.

"Done already?" Riku says in a tone of surprise. Zelos glances at the boy and says as he walks past "We're heading off to my mansion for the night. If you want to learn more, talk to Lloyd."

Waiting for Lloyd to come by, the teenage Overlord asks "What's up with Zelos?" Lloyd replies with as the two walk side by side through Meltokio "Heh, he's just a little upset that he has to become a cargo package."

"Oh yeah, we need to cross a bridge to get to Sybak, don't we? So you guys figured out a solution in there?" Riku asks. Genis answers his question by saying "Tomorrow we're using a device called the Elemental Cargo to travel across the water underneath the bridge to get to Sybak."

"Huh, that sounds like fun." Riku says, while behind him Raine shivers slightly at the thought. The group then goes through Meltokio, climbing a couple staircases and then taking a sharp right past some armored soldiers to reach one of the fancier districts in the city.

It doesn't come as a surprise that Zelos' mansion is the biggest and most exotic looking one in the area. It was three-stories tall with enriched green roofing and peerless glass windows and various other details too numerous to note. Zelos says "Welcome to my loooovely abode. I'm sure you're having a hard time picking your mouths off the ground, but I'm not going to let you in if you don't."

Lloyd jokingly responds to Zelos' high-view of his house with "Eh, after seeing the castle, your house isn't THAT impressive." Zelos slumps forward and says to Lloyd afterwards "Your remarks hurt me Lloyd…"

But like always Zelos regains his confidence and opens the door to his mansion a few seconds later, where the group is instantly greeted by a suave looking man wearing a blue butler's garb with a curled mustache below his finely shaped nose. The man says humbly "Welcome home, Chosen One."

Zelos says to the man "Yo Sebastian, did anything happen while I was gone?" Sebastian says to the Chosen while plucking at the right side of his mustache "I was instructed by the Pope and an emissary of his Majesty Tethe'alla the 18th to report as soon as the Chosen returned."

Zelos slyly says "You can just ignore that." Sebastian humorously has no qualms with the order, saying to Zelos afterwards "Yes, sir. Ahh…and who is the guest with the two swords?"

To get back at Lloyd for his earlier comment on his house, Zelos jokingly says to his servant "My bud. Just make yourselves at home everyone." Sebastian, misunderstanding what his master said just as Zelos expected him to, looks at Lloyd and says to him "If there is anything you need, Sir Bud, please speak to me."

Lloyd, realizing what Zelos has just done based on the subtle chuckle the Chosen lets out, exclaims in a somewhat bitter tone "…My name's not 'Bud'!"

A few minutes later, everyone has settled down inside of Zelos' mansion. Lloyd and Colette are having fun looking at the garden out back, Raine is examining some of the pictures on the wall, Sheena is off doing something else with Corrine, Genis is trying to communicate with Presea in a rather awkward manner, and Zelos is lounging back on one of his chairs while Riku sits on the couch adjacent to him with a cup of tea in his heads served by Sebastian.

"This tea tastes really good. Thank you Sebastian." Riku compliments the butler after taking a gentle sip of the hot liquid. Sebastian bows his head and says "It is always a pleasure to whip up some tea for Master Zelos' guests. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Sebastian turns around and walks off to take care of some other affairs, and Riku puts the tea cup down on a plate to save it for a little later. Zelos folds his arms behind his head and crosses his legs, glancing over at Riku and commenting "I wouldn't have taken you to be a tea lover."

Riku says to Zelos "I've honestly never had tea before." This grabs Zelos' interest, and he smiles and says to the boy "That was actually one of Sebastian's weaker blends. I always have him serve it to any male company we have."

The teenage Overlord leans forward and slyly smirks in front of Zelos' line of sight while saying "You save the best blends for the ladies, eh?"

"You pick up on things fast Riku." Zelos comments as he sits himself upright and holds his arms atop his legs.

"Speaking of ladies, have you seen where Sheena went off to? I have a question to ask her." Riku says, causing Zelos to murmur with intrigue before he rubs the bottom of his chin and says "Oh ho ho? Gonna try and make a move on the lovely luscious Sheena eh? No offense to you Riku, but if a beautiful specimen such as myself can't lure her to my side then you-"

"I'm just gonna stop you right there Zelos." Riku nonchalantly says to the man, proceeding to mention to Zelos "I'm not in love with Sheena. I just wanted to ask her a question or two about Summon Spirits."

"Oh that's all?" Zelos says with a little sigh of relief coming out as he leaned back against the chair and goes on to mention "Sheena went off to go meditate or something. It'd be best not to disturb her until morning."

"Alright, I guess I can respect that." Riku comments afterwards, going back to sipping down Sebastian's tea for the next few minutes in turn. When he was done with the tea, the teenage Overlord stretches his arms and says to Zelos after letting out a yawn "Ahh…Say, where are the beds?"

Zelos says in a surprised tone "You're tired already? Well, don't let any of us hold you up, just go to the second floor and take the second door to the right to get to one of the guest rooms."

Nodding his head in an appreciative manner, Riku gets off the couch and heads up to the second floor. When he enters the door that Zelos told him to he finds a nice sized bed with a laced sheet and a comfortable looking golden head plate. "Wow, can't believe that this is the guest room…" The teenage Overlord walks up to the bed and pulls back the sheets, sinking himself into the mattress as he lies down atop it and rests his arms down on both sides of his body to get into the best position for sleep.

"I am really not used to this…" Riku comments in a semi-happy tone of voice as he glances up at the fancily painted ceiling that depicts the crowning of the latest King of Meltokio. With both the tea and the events of the day taking hold of his mind, it doesn't take long for the teenage Overlord to sink into a deep slumber…

_Next Time: The Angelus Project_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Presea and the Prisoner**

When morning arrives across Tethe'alla, we find Riku slowly walking down the stairs in Zelos' mansion, stretching his arms with the clothes he's worn throughout on his entire journey still on his back. Looking down off the side of the stairs, he is surprised to find that Raine is the only one sitting down on the couch. She had a book of Tethe'alla history in her hands, and there was a stack of ten other books off to the right of her that were already completed.

"Fascinating, so that's why there was a Sorcerer's Ring altar in the sewers!" Raine comments with a flamboyant tone of intrigue in her voice, unaware that Riku was listening in on her bright-eyed enthusiasm. The professor lets out a rather frightening laugh as the boy ends his descent at the bottom of the staircase.

"Wow, you've been up for a while now Raine." Riku says, causing Raine to flinch out of her excited state and slam the book shut while she glances behind herself, recomposing her expression to a more relaxed state as she says "Oh, you're awake."

Riku walks to the side of the couch and takes a quick glance at the stack of books, noticing that one of the titles was "Legend of the Otherwo-" The rest was cut off by a book laying on top of it. This leads to the boy asking Raine "Doing some research on Tethe'alla?"

As Riku sits down on a chair to the right of the couch, Raine puts the book in her hand off to the side and says "Yes. Sebastian was kind enough to bring me the books I needed before he went to sleep last night."

"So you didn't sleep at all last night?" The teenage Overlord asks, which Raine nods in response to before mentioning "How can I when there's so much to learn about this world? Considering this is your first time in this world, I'm surprised you didn't spend the night reading as well."

Riku has to come up with a quick answer to hide his knowledge again, and he chose the better of two options as he waved his right hand out and said "When you have to travel as far as I have to to reach other worlds you really don't find much time to sleep, so while I had a chance to do so I decided to just sleep for the night."

Raine hums to herself as she stares at Riku, so the boy decides to add-on to his previous sentence with "Besides, I read up quite a bit on Tethe'alla while I was in Sybak. If there's anything else I need to know, I trust you to answer any of my questions."

The professor chuckles warmly at the thought, but points out to Riku afterwards "I'm flattered Riku, but I don't think it would be possible for me to tell you everything we need to know about this world." Raine then stands on her feet while picking up the last book she had, glancing over at Riku and saying to him "Since we still have to wait for everyone else, would you like to help me put these books away?"

Riku nods his head, and for the next ten minutes him and Raine work together to put the books back into place. When they get back to the living room, Zelos is sitting on his chair, staring at the two of them with his usual smirk on his face as he says mischievously "Well well, what were you two up to this morning?"

Raine continues walking ahead, saying nonchalantly to the man as she starts to head towards the staircase "We were sorting books in your library. Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to wake up my lazy little brother and Lloyd."

The professor walks out of sight, and Zelos looks at Riku and says after a light sigh "Let me tell ya, that lady is as cold as Flanoir's ice. If you ever find a woman in your life Riku, make sure she can react to a little teasing."

A few seconds later, a little bit of commotion can be heard coming from the second floor. There are two thumps followed by Lloyd exclaiming loudly "Ok Professor, we're up!" It is only a little later that Lloyd and Genis walk down the stairs while rubbing their stomachs with Raine following close behind. Riku looks at the two and says to them "You two feeling hungry?"

Lloyd groans and says in a grumbling tone "No…" Genis follows up on this "We were going to get up soon sis…You didn't have to do that…"

"I couldn't take the risk Genis, you know we have a lot to do today." Raine calmly points out. It doesn't take much long after that moment for Colette, Sheena and Presea to come down from above. Thanks to Sebastian and a few other maids, the group is able to enjoy a hefty breakfast in the dining room before they gather at the living room to head off to the Elemental Research Laboratory again.

As they are leaving, Lloyd looks at Colette as the girl grimaces slightly and says to her "Is something wrong Colette?" Colette flinches in surprise and tilts her head while saying to Lloyd "Hmm? I think I slept wrong. My shoulder feels stiff."

Lloyd mumbles for a second before asking Colette "Are you all right?" The girl tries to quickly change the subject by reassuring him with "Heheh, sorry." As naïve as he is, Lloyd accepts this answer with a nod of his head and turns back around to join back up with the rest of the group. It doesn't take long for everyone to return to the lab, and this time Riku chooses to head inside since there didn't appear to be as many soldiers roaming about.

The lab had a rather cold atmosphere to it due to the lack of windows bringing in sunlight, but was otherwise just as fancy as the rest of Meltokio's buildings Riku had seen thus far. Greeting the group was a green dome-haired person with pointed ears and a pearl lab coat. He looked at Lloyd with a gasp of joy as he says to him "Welcome back everyone. Everything is ready."

Sheena takes the forefront after taking a glance around the area, saying to the man "Where's the EC?" in a puzzled tone. "Your friend Kuchinawa carried it to the bridge already…Did he not tell you this?"

Sheena looks at the man and shakes her head while her expression becomes even more befuddled. The man sighs and says "I see…Head on over to the artificial beach near the bridge, he should be there waiting for you. Before you go though, take this."

The man reaches into his coat and pulls out a small box with tiny extended able wings that he gives to Lloyd. Taking hold of it in his left hand, Lloyd looks at in a puzzled manner as the man explains "This is a wing pack, you will store the EC in it."

Lloyd exclaims in disbelief as he looks up at the man "Whoa?! Is the Elemental Cargo really that small?!"

The man tilts his head and scratches the bottom of his chin as though Lloyd's answer made little sense to him, while Zelos answers Lloyd's question with "Ah, I see. They don't have wing packs in Sylvarant. Man, you guys are a bunch of country folks!"

Zelos' little joke naturally peeves Lloyd, causing him to turn around and exclaim to him "Gee, sorry!" The man laughs in response and says in a calm tone "Relax Lloyd, it's not too hard to use the wing pack. Let's get going so I can show you how later."

Everyone was about ready to head off, but then Sheena remembers something important and stops everyone with a simple "Wait just a second." The ninja girl looks back at the laboratory man and exclaims "Come on out, Corrine!" A puff of smoke on the nearby desk heralds the arrival of the little fox, who immediately looks at the smiling man and nervously trembles.

Sheena says to Corrine "We're going to be gone for a while. Say good-bye to everyone." Corrine's response is to stumble back a bit as the laboratory worker tries to approach him, forcing Sheena to reassure her little friend with "It's all right, they aren't going to do any more weird experiments on you."

The man closes his eyelids and leans forward with a smile while saying "Corrine, how have you been? I hope you continue to look after Sheena for us."

Ignoring the kind remarks of the man out of sheer nervousness, Corrine looks at Sheena and exclaims in a frightened manner "I hate this place!" This exclamation makes the man back off and gain a melancholy expression while Corrine quietly says "…I have Sheena, so I won't be lonely."

Sheena says in a semi-embarrassed tone of voice to her little foxy friend "Corrine! Don't talk like that." Corrine curls back slightly and whimpers before glancing at the man half-heartedly and saying "…Good-bye" before he vanishes in another puff of smoke.

The laboratory worker sighs and says in a disappointed tone "Even now, Corrine still hates us…I'm sorry for the trouble Sheena, and I wish you and your friends the best of luck." Thanking the man for the show of good will, the group exits the lab, and because the front gate is still guarded under the King's orders the group has to take a detour back through the sewers to make it out of Meltokio.

On the field, the group makes a rather short trip due north of the city to arrive at the Grand Tethe'alla Bridge, a rather gargantuan green architecture that extends out for miles on end, but both halves were raised up near the center to prevent the Chosen's group from going back and forth between Sybak and Meltokio easily. Everyone ignores the main bridge and goes towards a locked gate on the right side per Sheena's directions.

"Kuchinawa should be waiting for us down below, but how are we going to get past this locked gate?" Sheena's question is answered by an enthusiastically willing Lloyd, who draws one of his swords and says "Leave it to me!"

With one swing Lloyd cuts off the lock on the gate, and it creaks open while he sheathes his blade back in. Playing that simple act off coolly "There we go." Leads to Colette enthusiastically replying with "Wow! Lloyd, you're amazing!"

To ensure that Lloyd doesn't get too big of an ego, Genis jokingly says "At least he's useful for certain things." While Zelos says "His face loses out to mine, though." This distracts Lloyd away from his little moment as he turns to the suave man and exclaims "What has my face got to do with anything?!"

Raine looks towards the bridge with a curious look in her eyes and says "You can see the bridge from here." Everyone glances towards it, and Colette in particular notices something odd now that she saw the bridge from this point of view. "Are those decoration-looking things Exspheres?"

She refers to the red orbs present across the side, and Zelos points out to Colette afterwards "That's right Colette. That bridge is…operated by Exspheres." The man felt a bit disgusted to say that, and everyone starts going melancholy mere moments later.

Weighing in on the mood, Zelos says to the group as they turn and head down the staircase "It certainly is grotesque, but considering where Exspheres come from I'm not sure it's appropriate to describe them that way."

Colette nods her head and says "…You're right." And cracks a smile afterwards while trying to lift her mood back up.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs brings the group to the rather small docks, where a man wearing a full-body crimson ninja garb stands on the farthest dock next to a orange and grey-green colored sea vessel. As the people gather nearby, the man impatiently says "It took you long enough. This is the EC."

"Good morning to you too, Kuchinawa." Zelos sarcastically says to the ninja before he turns to Lloyd and gestures at the EC and asks "Ok Lloyd, take out the wing pack and aim it at the EC."

Lloyd pulls the little pack out of his outfit and points it at the vessel while examining a single button near the bottom and saying "Let's see…like this?" With a single push some bit of science related mumbo-jumbo happens that causes the EC to be covered in smoke as it shrinks down and flies straight into the top of the box. Lloyd, Colette, Genis and Riku all look on in surprise, with Lloyd nearly dropping the box into the water in the process.

"Whoa?!" "Wow! That's incredible!" "Wow! How does it work?!" Barely describes the reactions Lloyd, Colette and Genis have towards the wing pack's function. Riku waves one hand out and says "No matter where I go, technology still manages to amaze me." While he mentions this he glances over at Raine, who quietly comments "…Why do I…feel like I've seen this before?"

Presea surprisingly looks at the professor too and asks "…Professor?" in a robotic tone before Raine brushes her feelings off and says "Ah…It's nothing."

Zelos smiles at the rather impressed Lloyd and says "See, it fits snuggly inside." Lloyd raises the wing pack up with one hand and says excitedly "It disappeared! It's amazing! This is so cool! Let's try bringing it back out!" With another press of the button, the EC is ejected back into the water in it's normal size.

"Wow!" Lloyd, Colette and Genis say in unison. Too far impressed with how this works, Lloyd repeatedly presses the button on the wing pack to store and eject the EC for a good twenty seconds, grinning goofily all the while until the impatient Kuchinawa says "…That's enough goofing around. How about getting on your way?"

Lloyd stops messing with the wing pack and says in a grumpy tone "Fine, fine. I can't wait to make use of this EC! This is great!" Genis pops in on his friend's enthusiasm by mentioning "Come on Lloyd, you know you'll just get bored with it in no time…" While Colette matches Lloyd's high-spirits with "Yay, we get to go out to sea again!"

Raine groans in the distance and comments while scrunching her forehead with her fingertips "We're going to sea, aren't we…"

Sheena says happily "Let's get going then. Off to Sybak!" As everyone started to enter the EC from the top, Kuchinawa turns to Sheena and holds his hand out, saying in a respectful tone "Sheena, take this with you." In his palm was a small paper seal with a particular bit of text on it.

Sheena recognizes the object and says "A projective charm?" As she takes it from Kuchinawa's hand. The ninja nods and says "Yes. Be careful!" With a puff of smoke created from his ninja arts, Kuchinawa vanishes from sight. Sheena then leaps atop the EC after putting the projective charm in her shirt. Before entering the ship she pulls out another charm and holds it in front of her body with two fingers while a glyphic seal of pure water forms around her feet.

"I call upon the Maiden of the Mist!" Sheena's voice echoes outward as she channels all of her energy into the seal in her hand. The glyphic seal expands to include three magical circles merged together by a triangle of lines, and Sheena raises the seal above her head while exclaiming "I summon thee! Come, Undine!"

In front of the EC, Sheena summons forth a majestic being that takes on an amphibian-like form, complete with blue skin and "clothes" that seem to be fused to her skin. Recognizing the wishes of her master, the Summon Spirit Undine waves her hands out in front of her body and weaves the flow of water-based mana into the EC to transform it into a proper sea-faring vessel. As the EC rises slightly off the water's surface, Sheena thanks Undine for her efforts and puts her seal away while the spirit disappears before she jumps into the ship with everyone else.

The group takes off across the grand Tethe'alla sea, with a monitor inside the ship thankfully allowing them to see just where they were traveling. It was surprisingly spacious inside the EC, meaning that nobody would feel cramped as they waited for the vessel to arrive at the coast near Sybak. So everyone decided to relax for now and contemplate their next moves or just have casual conversations with each other.

With Lloyd, Colette and Genis still geeking out over the wing pack, Raine and Zelos talking about the functionality of the EC some more while Sheena spends some time with Corrine, Riku decided that he would try and strike up a conversation with the stiff and quiet Presea. "Let's see how much luck I can have…" Riku whispers to himself before he walks over to the young girl, who was standing at the eastern end of the ship and looking up towards the ceiling.

"Hey Presea, how are you doing?" The teenage Overlord kindly asks. Presea looks at Riku with an unchanging stoic expression and says "…I want to go home."

Riku blinks a few times at Presea and sighs, thinking to himself _"This is not something I'm used to…" _He gets on both knees to be on eye level with the young girl, asking of her "Where is your home?"

"…Ozette. I want to return to Ozette." Presea replies with. Riku tilts his head and cracks a smile while saying "Is Ozette a beautiful place?"

"…Ozette is…warm." Is Presea's response. And with such a short sentence, the teenage Overlord opens his eyes and sighs once more, saying to himself quietly "This probably wasn't the best idea."

Looking up at Presea as the girl tilts her head slightly, Riku says the only thing he can think of to end this conversation right "Don't worry Presea, we'll be at Ozette soon." The girl replies in turn "…I want to go home" repeating what she said mere seconds go with no change in tone. The teenage Overlord gets back onto his feet and comments as he slowly looks away from the girl "…I wish I could help you out now Presea, but my powers aren't useful for this problem."

Having depressed himself via this "conversation" with Presea, Riku just secludes himself on one side of the EC and tries to cheer himself up by listening in on Lloyd, Colette and Genis' merry discussion until the vessel eventually parks itself on the coastline East of Sybak. At that point the group gets out and stores the EC inside of the wing pack before they make a short trek over to the scientific city.

Upon entering Sybak, Riku can see why it was given it's nickname. Immediately off to the left are a series of electrical conductors that power the city, and every building inside is scientific of historical in some manner. Even the restaurant is called "Café Cranium". But the wonder of looking at Sybak for the first time fades away as the group is blocked by a rather familiar figure.

"Kratos!" Lloyd's proclamation made the person's identity apparent to Riku, who could barely see the red-haired warrior of Cruxis from the back of the group. The man stood still before everyone, and Lloyd began to reach for one of his swords while exclaiming "Are you trying to take Colette away?!"

Lloyd walks forward while drawing out his sword and swinging it out beside him to protect Colette, while Kratos calmly looks at the angered boy and says "…I have no intention of fighting you inside the city." When it appears as though Lloyd will not back down, Kratos makes a demonstration of the futility of his actions by drawing his sword out and swinging it so quickly that the force applied to Lloyd's own sword ends up throwing the boy straight onto his rear-end.

Kratos then sheathes his blade and folds his arms in front of his chest, looking down on Lloyd with cold disappointment as he says "You still lack the skills to defeat me." Sitting on the ground for a few seconds while blinking in disbelief, Lloyd quickly rises up afterwards with an angered scowl on his face as he exclaims to the man "Don't insult me!"

Kratos smiles slightly and says "I merely speak the truth." These words leave Lloyd frozen in place as Kratos then walks past him and most of the group, and he takes pause beside to say to her "Chosen One. If you wish to live, you must remove that worthless Key Crest."

Colette, in a surprising move of defiance considering just who she was in the presence of, turns towards Kratos and says to him calmly with an angered look in her eyes "…No." This causes Kratos to raise his eyebrows and curiously listen in as the girl says to him "I'm never taking this off…Lloyd gave this to me."

Kratos' response to this statement is to quietly murmur "…Foolish sentiments…" He then begins to walk off again, only for him to stop with his back turned towards Riku. Instead of keeping a conversation confined only between the two of them, Kratos says loud enough for the entire group to hear "Elemental Overlord, I hope you are enjoying your time with the Chosen's group while it lasts."

With most of the group flinching in surprise upon hearing this, Kratos knew he had accomplished his task and walked right out of Sybak. Riku grimaces at what just occurred, but has to quickly come up with a response to what just happened as Lloyd says to him "…You know Kratos?"

Riku looks at the entire group and says to them all in a fake tone of honesty "Well yeah, we briefly encountered each other when I first arrived in this world. I already told you that."

"But he called you by your other name." Genis points out in a suspicious tone of voice, which forces Riku to make a modification to his prior lie as he says "Well…We did fight each other briefly, and I let slip who I was."

"I'm surprised he referred to you by that title considering it was such a 'brief' encounter." Raine firmly states to Riku, putting enough emphasis on that one word to make it obvious that she was starting to unravel Riku's lies. The boy says in response to that "Well Kratos is a powerful warrior. Since I survived an encounter with him he must have decided to respect our duel by calling me that."

After that remark, Zelos swiftly drags the conversation away from Riku by saying "Man, what an arrogant SOB. Talking as if he knows everything…" With the words the man chose, Sheena directs a glare at Zelos and says to him in a scolding manner "While we're on the subject of ways of talking, why don'tcha do something about the vulgar language?" This gets a light giggle out of the Chosen of Tethe'alla.

Raine decides to accept the facts as they are now, and turns to the somewhat infuriated Lloyd to get him back on track with "Anyways Lloyd, we must go see this Kate person." Reminded of why they were in Sybak, Lloyd says to professor after a sigh "…Yeah. Let's get going."

A short trip through the wondrous city of Sybak brings the group to it's greatest institution. They head down a staircase in the back that leads them down to the basement of the facility, where two people are waiting around near an examiner's table. The closest one, a pointy-eared woman wearing small glasses and an exotic looking ponytail wearing a familiar lab coat, turns to the group and says in surprise "…It's you!"

Lloyd confidently smiles and says "We've saved our friends and came back with Presea just like we promised." The girl, Kate, glances over both Raine and Genis for a few seconds before saying "…Yes, you're right. The strange mana produced by the fusion of elven and human blood…You really do have half-elf friends."

Raine nods her head to confirm this fact and then gets down to business by saying to the girl "I've heard the story already. Presea's creating a Cruxis Crystal inside her body?"

Kate turns to Presea and looks at her quietly before glancing off at the rest of the group and saying "Yes, that's correct. She was part of an experiment we called the Angelus Project."

The name resonates well with Lloyd, who exclaims and then stutters "The Angelus Project! That's…the Project my Mom was involved in." While Lloyd says that, Kate walks over to Presea and tries to examine the Cruxis Crystal on her chest. As though a self-defense mechanism was programmed into her mind, Presea slaps Kate's hand away and then runs off beside one of the complex machines in the room, staring at the ground while Genis stares at her concernedly and Kate lets out a saddened sigh.

"…The Exsphere itself is nothing special. It just has a special Key Crest placed on it. This Key Crest delays the Exsphere's parasitic process, which can take place over a few days or up to several decades. It seems this can cause Exspheres to mutate into Cruxis Crystals." Kate explains the Angelus Project to the group.

Raine takes the information she just learned and figures out a close connection to another particular individual "Is the parasitic infection of the Exsphere the reason why Presea's emotional response is so subdued?"

Genis also picks up on what Raine had determined and says "If so, then she's just like Colette!" Colette looks at Kate afterwards and asks "If we leave Presea like this, what will happen to her?"

Kate goes silent for a few seconds, as what she was about to reveal was something she wished she could avoid. Thus she hesitantly states to the group "When the parasitic process is complete…she will die."

Genis flinches back in a horrified manner, and with a stuttered response far greater than what everyone else was experiencing he says "That's horrible! Please save her! What did she ever do to you?!"

Kate understands Genis' reaction all too well and says to him as she keeps a melancholic expression on her face "…She hasn't done anything. She just matched in the compatibility test."

Lloyd calmly points out "…You promised. You're going to save her, right?" Kate nods her and reminds Lloyd "I remember. You didn't discriminate against half-elves, so I'll keep my promise."

The half-elf man in the room says in disbelief and concern "Kate! Are you sure?! If you do that, you'll…" " A promise is a promise." Kate cuts the man off with that short sentence, and then turns to Lloyd and says to him "In order to save Presea, speak to a dwarf named Altessa who lives deep in Gaoracchia Forest."

Lloyd exclaims in utter surprise "Wait, there are dwarves in this world, too?!" Kate nods her head and further explains "Yes. He and I participated in this experiment by the order of the Pope."

Zelos groans and rubs the back of his head while saying in exasperation "Sheesh, not that pathetic old man again." Kate immediately snaps at Zelos with "Don't call him a pathetic old man!"

This response naturally intrigues everyone in the room, but it's Zelos who capitalizes on the surprise and says "Oh, my. That's unusual, a half-elf siding with the Pope." Realizing how badly she screwed up, Kate stumbles on her words as she lowers her head and says "…I'm…not siding with him. Anyways, have Altessa repair Presea's Key Crest."

Colette turns to Lloyd and asks him "Lloyd, can't you fix it like you did mine?" The boy hums to himself in thought before stating "…To be honest, I can't even tell the difference between Presea's crest and a normal one. It'd probably be faster to search for that dwarf, Altessa."

Sheena enthusiastically says "Then it's settled. Shall we head for Gaoracchia Forest?" Everyone save for Presea nods their head in agreement, and after Genis helps guide the girl towards the stair they start to leave the facility after thanking Kate for her help.

Along the way, Lloyd suggest to everyone "Hmm…I wonder if there's a connection between the Pope and the Desians." Appreciating the boy's observation, Raine says in response "Yes, I'm wondering about that, too."

After Zelos explains to the group that the forest is not far north of Sybak they make their way out of the city for now, and as they cross the Tethe'alla plains Riku walks beside Lloyd and asks him "So you know another dwarf?"

Lloyd turns his head towards the teenage Overlord and replies "Yeah. My dad Dirk is a dwarf. He's all the way back in Sylvarant right now though."

Riku then says "So he's the one who taught you how to make Key Crests for you and your friend's Exspheres. Considering that none of you have been infected, he definitely taught you well."

"Hehe, yeah. I honestly can't wait to see how good Altessa is in comparison." Lloyd glances over at Presea and says afterwards "I wonder just how many people were affected by the Angelus Project besides my mom and Presea…"

Riku gestures out with his right hand to grab Lloyd's attention before mentioning "Cruxis and the Desians have been around for a while, right? It's probably best to not think about it. Right now, we're doing whatever we can now to prevent this from ever happening again."

Lloyd nods his head in agreement while resting one hand atop his Exsphere, saying to Riku in turn "You're right. We'll save Presea, just like we did Colette." Pumping his right fist into the air, Lloyd proclaims in turn "Dwarven Vow #2: Never abandon someone in need."

Genis shrugs his shoulders at what Lloyd just said and mentions "Come on Lloyd, don't infect Riku with those cheesy vows." To which Lloyd replies with "Shut up Genis, at least it's better than saying 'Justice and love will always win' every time we defeat a monster." This remark leads to the two bickering for a little bit like a couple of brothers, something Riku smiles at until the moment that Raine stops them both.

An hour later, the group arrives at the entrance of the Gaoracchia Forest, a heavily tree infested landscape with barely any solid ground in sight thanks to the excess of roots crawling across the area. Heavy leafed branches leave little sunlight in the forest, and there was always this looming sense of dread in the atmosphere. Lloyd comments first "Ugh…This place feels so creepy."

Colette says in an off-putting, cheerful voice "Wow! It's dark!" Zelos stares at the girl in disbelief and says "Colette, you're awfully cheery about that…" And after turning her head towards her fellow Chosen she giggles and says "Sorry…"

The clanking of metal armor grabs everyone's attention afterwards, and Lloyd moves his hands towards his swords as he and Zelos recognize the three heavily armored soldiers that are approaching them with a pike in their hands. "Should have seen this coming…It's the Pope's little goons." Zelos comments.

One of the knights takes the forefront and says to the group "Chosen Zelos. You are in the way of the Pope." Zelos brushes the remark off nonchalantly and says "Heh. I've known that since I was a kid."

Another soldier says "Then that makes things simple. It is time for you to-" "Air Thrust!" As soon as Genis proclaims this, a circular formation of wind blades forms in the center of the three knights, lashing out against their backsides and sending them flying into the trees surrounding the group. One impact is all it takes for each of them to be knocked unconscious.

Genis confidently puts his kendama away while cracking a grin, and Lloyd lets go of his swords to turn back at his friend and say "Good work Genis."

"Glad you took care of them Genis, but there are going to be reinforcements eventually." Riku comments. Sheena says afterwards "Then we'll just get the heck out of here. But to where?"

"We're already going to Altessa's. The Papal Knights shouldn't find us there." Raine mentions with confidence in her voice, to which everyone agrees on. They then make their way through the labyrinth-like forest, using an altar to change the Sorcerer's Ring and give it the ability to project sunlight, which helps them dispel some of the more demonic foliage and guide their way through until they appear to be reaching the end of the forest.

However, Colette pauses for a moment and glances towards another path and says quietly "I hear something…footsteps from far away…" Zelos turns towards the girl and says in confusion "Huh? I don't hear anything."

Raine recognizes what's going on and says "I see, Colette still has her angel senses." Colette does a cutesy 'shush' towards her friends before whispering "Their definitely footsteps. Also, the sound of clinking armor. There are lots of them. It's coming from that direction."

Lloyd states "That can't be right. Altessa lives over there. Could it be more of the Pope's soldiers?" Sheena takes the lead of the group and summons Corrine onto her shoulder. The little fox leaps off and glances back at the ninja before scurrying off down the path ahead of them. "Corrine will scout ahead for us. For now, we should try not to move."

While everyone stood still and waited for the little fox to return, a person descended from the top of the forest, and when he lands on the ground everyone turns at him and flinches in shock save for Presea. It was the blue-haired, muscular prisoner from yesterday. This time however, the man didn't have as much of an intimidating air about him.

"You again? Sheesh, does the Pope really hate me this much?" Zelos says. The man tries to make his intentions known peacefully this time, as he says in a respectable manner to the group "I do not wish to fight you. I just want to speak with that girl."

Lloyd takes a guess and says "With Presea?" This answer along with the man's head nod makes Genis exclaim bravely "You've got to be kidding! Or did you forget that you tried to kill us?!"

"…I cannot speak for any others, however, I, at least, never intended to take your lives. My orders were to retrieve at girl named Colette." The prisoner says to the group. Colette points to herself and says "…Me?"

The man turns to her and apologetically nods his head, giving his word to the group that "I will do you no harm. Presea…is her name, correct? Please let me speak with her."

Lloyd turns towards everyone and says hesitantly "I don't know guys, do you think this is the right thing to do?" Raine naturally points out to everyone "If this man intended to kill us or lead us into a trap, he had the perfect chance to do so while our guards were down just a moment ago. Let him have a moment with Presea, but stay on guard just in case."

"Thank you." The man says, and he turns to look at Presea. The first thing that grabs his attention is the glowing Exsphere on the chest of her shirt, and with his eyes widening in utter shock he exclaims "An Exsphere?! You are yet another victim?!"

The prisoner approaches Presea and tries to reach for her Exsphere, but just like with Kate the girl brushes the man off with a heavy slap to the chest. Presea then backs off slightly while the man feels a light sting in his skin. Everyone reacts in surprise to this bar Riku, and Genis exclaims in anger "What do you think you're doing to Presea?!"

Lloyd pulls out one of his swords and looks at the puzzled man while saying "I don't know what the heck is going on, but we have to stop this guy!"

Zelos starts to walk in front of Lloyd while reaching for the sword in his hilt and a small shield on the other side of his belt. He says to his friend "Easy there Lloyd, let me handle this one alone."

With both of his battle items drawn, Zelos stands in front of Presea and stares the prisoner down as the man claims "You don't understand, I'm trying to-"

Zelos raises his left hand into the air and wags one of his fingers around while saying "Come on now, you should know better than to try and approach a young lady like that. You trying to ruin her innocence or something?"

"If I'm correct about her Exsphere, she has lost that long ago." The man says in response. Zelos sighs and shakes his head back and forth before saying "Well that isn't very nice. I imagine you don't get very many ladies with those remarks…Of course, they might be into the scruffy bad boy image you got going on there."

"Stop treating this like a joke, Chosen One." The man says in a bitter tone, and Zelos puts on more serious expression as he mentions "Well now that you mention it, you did kind of pile-drive my pretty little face into the sewer floor just a day ago. And personally, that kind of pissed me."

"Ugh, figures that it is all about his personal appearance." Sheena comments in disgust, which leads to Raine adding on with "And here I thought that he was actually doing something honorable."

Zelos looks over at the group and states suavely "Oh come on, I'm still trying to defend Presea here. Not everything revolves around my dashing good looks."

"You shouldn't have added that last part then…Ugh, come on guys, let Zelos do what he wants here." Lloyd gestures to Presea to join them as they go off to the side and wait for Corrine while Zelos deals with the prisoner.

Letting out a sigh, Zelos shrugs and says "You can't win them all I guess…" before turning to look at the prisoner, who says after a tired grumble "So I guess we have no choice but to fight."

"Yeah, it looks that w-" Before Zelos finishes his sentence, the convict lifts his right leg up and goes for Zelos' head with a mighty kick, forcing him to raising his shield up to block the blow while letting out a surprised "WHOA THERE!"

The impact of the kick sends the Chosen sliding back ten feet across the ground, but right after he pulls his arms out he performs two quick sword swings on the ground to send two fanged projectiles at the convict while having a confident smile on his face. But with a gliding sweep of his foot around the ground the man kicks both projectiles into nothingness, while creating a crescent indent in the dried landscape with the heel of his boot.

A spark goes off in Zelos' mind after that kick, but instead of commenting on the matter he fires off another fanged projectile that the man breaks with another sweeping kick. This time Zelos follows up by thrusting forward with his sword, traveling across the ground at the man while a spiral formation of wind surrounds his body. Bracing him into the ground with one knee, the convict uses the hardened link between both of his cuffs to block the tip of Zelos' sword.

The Chosen quickly pulls his arm back and flips his sword through the air before grabbing hold of it and hold his shield in front of him as the man swiftly goes into a high mid-air leap followed by a circular kick that releases two crescent indents in the air, one of which hits Zelos and pushes him back slightly. As his body straightens the man points one foot at the Chosen and dives straight down in a second with multiple rings of energy rupturing the air from the force he applies to it.

Zelos looks at the man with wide-eyes before leaping ten feet back before the kick connects, leaving the convict to crash into the ground and break apart everything within a twelve-foot circumference around his body. Zelos stumbles a bit as the ground cracks apart, while everyone looks on in awe at the strength he displayed. "How was a guy like him ever arrested?!" Lloyd states in sheer disbelief.

As the convict rises up out of the center of the broken ground, Riku looks at his body real quick and notices an Exsphere in-between both of his cuffs. It wasn't glowing, signifying that he wasn't using it in battle. "This guy is definitely an able fighter…He knows how to focus just the right amount of energy into his legs, and he's very proficient on the defensive side too." Riku quietly observes as he continues to lean back against the tree.

The convict runs at Zelos and performs two swift kicks with both of his legs that puts the Chosen on the defensive once more. While he man lowers his legs Zelos tries to deal a little damage with a horizontal cut, but the convict ducks and performs a sweeping kick that connects with the back of Zelos' legs and makes him fall straight onto his back. The convict lifts himself upright and stares down at the Chosen, and as Lloyd starts to get onto his feet to join the battle Corrine quickly runs onto the scene and approaches Sheena urgently.

"Sheena! There were a lot of soldiers and they're all coming this way! You need to flee!" Corrine exclaims. Sheena looks at Corrine in a worried panic and nods in an understanding manner, and as the little fox vanishes she turns towards the group and says "Looks like Colette was right."

The convict looks over at the group and comments "The Papal Knights are coming? But he told me that I'd be coming here alone…" While the man was puzzled by what he was hearing, Zelos performs a swift maneuver with both his arms and feet to kick back onto his feet, where he then flips his sword around and uses the top of his sword's handle to punch the convict in the chest where Presea previously slapped him. The combined damage knocks the wind right out of the man, and he falls straight onto his face with a heavy thud a moment later.

Zelos sheathes his sword and looks at the everyone, saying quickly and urgently "Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't think it's a wise idea to go to Altessa's house right now."

Sheena rises to her feet and nervously scratches the back of her head, hesitantly saying to everyone "…I can't believe it's come to this. Since we've exhausted all other options, I have no choice but to take you to the village of Mizuho."

Zelos looks at Sheena in stunned silence, reminding her gently "Whoa there Sheena. Isn't Mizuho a hidden village? As in, they'd probably KILL any outsiders?"

"You'll be dead if you stay here anyways, so I'm willing to take the risk by bringing you to the village." Sheena bravely says to everyone. Lloyd nods his head in agreement of the plan and says "Okay. Please show us the way, Sheena."

Zelos gestures a thumb towards the prisoner and says to everyone nonchalantly "So umm…What are we going to do about this hunk of muscle?" To which Raine wisely suggests "Considering the man has a connection to both Presea and the Pope, it might be wise for us to take him prisoner. We can use all the information we can get."

The Chosen smiles and says in a complimenting manner to Raine "See? This is why you're considered the pretty little brains of our group." This time Raine replies coldly with "Indeed, and as the 'pretty little brains', I think it would be in our best interest for you to carry the man with us."

Zelos flinches back in surprise and starts stammering out "M-ME?! You want me, the great Zelos, to carry this ogre by myself? Are you kidding me?" But thankfully for the Chosen of Tethe'alla, the kindly Colette folds her hands in front of her chest and says enthusiastically "Here, I'll help. Zelos will have a hard time by himself."

Colette's insistence to help lightens Zelos' spirits right up, and he says in a suave manner that makes Lloyd groan "Aww, you're so nice Colette! We Chosens have to look out for each other, right?" Colette pumps one fist into the air and says "Yeah!" Before she runs up to the left of the convict's body and leans down to try and pick him up. Zelos goes to join in, only for him to stumble back onto his rear-end when Colette manages to lift the man's body right up like he was a feather.

Everyone glares in surprise at Colette's feat of strength minus Presea as usual, and while the man limps over Colette's right shoulder the girl looks back and forth at everyone's shocked expressions and says "Oh, he's lighter than I thought. I can carry him myself" brushing off the puzzlement of everyone as nothing unusual.

Composing himself as he rises back up to his feet and brushes the back of his pants off, Zelos laughs awkwardly and says "Haha…I see…"

Sheena, who had already headed for the south entrance of the forest, looks back at the group and urgently reminds them "Come on, we need to go!" Everyone starts to run out of the forest after that reminder, but not before Riku quickly turns back and creates two contained walls of fire that would make it impossible for the knights to pursue them for the next two hours. After ensuring that the forest wouldn't be set ablaze, Riku brushes away a dew of sweat and then joins back up with the group to head for Mizuho…

_Next Time: Presea and Ozette_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: A Haunting Scene in Ozette**

Escaping from the forest with the Papal Knights held back by Riku's walls of fire, the group is quickly guided around by Sheena towards the hidden village of Mizuho. Colette keeps the blue-haired prisoner hauled over her right shoulder with little stress applied to her body, causing Lloyd to comment in a puzzled tone "Colette, are you sure you're ok?"

Colette glances past her left shoulder and says in a chipper tone "Of course Lloyd. Why do you ask?" Lloyd naturally exclaims "Because you're carrying a 200 lb. man!"

The girl happily says "Yeah, it's a lot of fun! Do you want to try it Lloyd?" Colette is almost ready to throw the man at her friend, but in a panic Lloyd rapidly states "No no no! That's not necessary!"

"Oh, ok Lloyd. So why are you so worried?" Colette calmly asks. After getting a grip on himself, Lloyd replies with "You've always had trouble lifting even a chair. Doesn't this sudden increase in strength worry you?"

"Of course not, it's just another perk of being an angel, and a fun one at that!" Colette…Surprisingly brings up a good point. Lloyd lets out a relieved sigh as he puts the facts together, and is glad to see Colette enjoying herself again. "You're right, I'm sorry for doubting anything." Lloyd says. Colette giggles, but as she turns her head back around her face looks a little distressed and she grimaces while glancing at her shoulder.

After traveling around for fifteen minutes, Zelos leans over Sheena's left shoulder and slyly asks "Soooo…Are we there yet?" Sheena glances at the man in an annoyed man and uses her left hand to brush him out of the way while saying "It's not called a 'hidden village' because it's easy to find. I know this is hard for you, but be patient."

Zelos grins and says "I'm saying, it feels like we've been passing by the same locations for the last few minutes." Sheena then groans and says to Zelos angrily "Ugh, you were paying attention to that?! Damn it Zelos, now we have to wander around a little longer before I take you all to Mizuho!"

The Chosen of Tethe'alla says in a puzzled yet suave tone "Hey hey, don't pin the blame on me, I didn't know you were up to something my voluptuous darling." Sheena replies with "Well of course I was! If I just went straight to Mizuho it would be easy for you to remember how to get there! And I honestly can't trust SOMEONE to not tell the world about where the village is."

"Why Sheena, I'm hurt. How can you not trust pretty ol' me?" Zelos suavely states. Sheena happily replies "I can think of five incidents in the last year alone, if you want me to list them." Zelos backs off slightly and says "Oh fine, if you want to be that way then I'll just be quiet."

Sheena doesn't believe that the guy will live up to his word, but for the remainder of the trip to Mizuho he doesn't let out a single word. "I can't believe it…" Sheena murmurs out as she looks at the entrance to her home village and says to everyone "Well, here we are…This is Mizuho." Her tone was quiet and a little worried sounding.

The village of Mizuho was self-contained in a ring of bamboo walls, and the houses were few and simple in design. Riku felt a little bit of nostalgia upon looking at this simple village, and after sniffing the clean air he folds his arms behind his head and says in a relaxed tone "Now this is more my element…"

As they pass under the gate, a blue-garbed ninja with a visible face and a katana on his back quickly crosses the bridge and looks at Sheena in disbelief, saying to her then and there "Sheena! What is the meaning of this? How could you bring outsiders into the village?!"

Sheena sighs, and seeing as she saw this event coming she quickly replies to the ninja "I'm prepared to accept my punishment later. But for now Orochi, please inform the Vice-Chief. I've brought the Chosen's group from Sylvarant."

"…Sylvarant? You mean the dying world Sylvarant?" Orochi nods upon recognizing the severity of the situation if these people were all gathered here. Zelos comments "Well, everyone expect me, the little girl, and the boy with the black hair."

"And my deal is kind of complicated…" Riku adds-on before Orochi nods his head and comments "I see. Sheena, come with me. The rest of you, wait in front of the Chief's house. It is just a few feet past the bridge."

Sheena complies with Orochi's request, and follows her fellow ninja across the small wooden bridge while her friends follow close behind. When they cross the bridge all the way, Colette hears a grumble coming from the prisoner. Looking straight at Sheena, the girl says "Ummm, we'll join you in a bit Sheena."

"Don't worry about it Colette, I won't be long." Sheena says after taking a glance back at the Chosen. Sheena and Orochi then walk into the Chief's house while Colette takes the man on her shoulder and lowers him slowly onto the ground. Recognizing that he's about to wake up, the group surrounds the prisoner.

Wiggling slightly, the prisoner groans as his eyelids creak open. His vision is fuzzy, but it doesn't take long for him to notice that he's surrounded by the people he ambushed in the forest. "Wh…Where am I?" The man says as he surprisingly rises to his feet despite just waking up. Lloyd firmly says as the man glances back at him "You're our prisoner. Don't try anything funny."

"I like to think that I'm smart enough not to start trouble when I don't understand the situation." The man says, and after he is done with Lloyd he turns to look at Presea with a melancholy look in his eyes. The girl cautiously steps back, but the prisoner does nothing more than look.

With the prisoner in tow, everyone walks through Mizuho to head for the Chief's house. Along the way, they hear the whispers of the village. "I can't believe Sheena brought outsiders into the village." "She's always causing trouble." "Why does she still live here?" There was not a single positive word to be spread towards the girl.

"Nobody seems to like Sheena…" Genis comments quietly to everyone. Zelos says in a surprisingly serious tone "It's best not to ask around about that. It'll be up to Sheena to tell us what happened here."

"You know, Zelos?" Lloyd asks in a tone of surprise. Zelos turns towards Lloyd and grins slyly while stating "Of course I do. I've known Sheena for a really long time. Her and I have a couple things in common, actually."

"The fact that you're both from Tethe'alla?" Genis sarcastically asks, but Zelos surprisingly replies with "Neither of us are wanted." This puzzles both Lloyd and Genis, and leaves the open-eared Raine murmuring to herself.

Everyone gathers in front of the Chief's House, where Orochi has come out to say to the group "The Vice-Chief is ready to see you. All of you, in fact." Extending the invite to the entire group, Orochi steps off to the side and lets the group enter the Chief's house. Lloyd extends a show of thanks to the ninja afterwards. The inside of the house has little in the way of light, with the brightest source belonging to a couple of lit steel torches inside the secluded room to the left of the entrance.

Lloyd enters first, and inside is a middle-aged man wearing baggy marsh-green pants, a yellow open sleeveless vest and a white undershirt. He had a pointed brown beard and a clean cut hairstyle. Sheena was to the left of him, both figures kneeled down and bathed in the light of the crackling flames. Out of respect, everyone bows at the man in front of them, and the man does the same in kindness.

Everyone save for Zelos and Riku then sit themselves down across the room in front of the man, with Lloyd sitting directly in front of the man as he begins to speak in a gravelly sounding tone "Our leader, Chief Igaguri, is ill. I, the Vice-Chief, Tiga, shall speak on his behalf."

Tiga gets right to the point of the matter by stating to the group "Because Sheena failed to kill you, we, the people of Mizuho, now faces persecution from the Tethe'alla Royal Family and the Church of Martel."

Lloyd blinks a few times in surprise at how suddenly the people of Mizuho were targeted and asks just to confirm "Is that true?"

Tiga nods his head and goes on to explain "Yes. At least from what I've heard. Now I have a question to ask. People of Sylvarant, what do you plan to do in Tethe'alla, the land of your enemies?"

Riku listened in closely, for he recalled that this was an important moment in Lloyd's journey. Lloyd thinks to himself for a few seconds and then gives an answer "I've been thinking about that for a long time. Someone asked me why I came all the way to Tethe'alla…what it is that I want to do."

Continuing on with the utmost confidence in his voice, Lloyd gives his answer to the question asked of him just a day ago "I want a world where everyone can have a normal life. I'm tired of people having to become sacrifices. I'm tired of discrimination. I'm tired of people becoming victims. I'm tired of it all."

Tiga gets a happy chuckle out of the answer, and with a smile on his face he says "You are an idealist. The worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant flourish only by victimizing the others. So long as that structure remains the same, anything you say is mere sophistry."

Lloyd quickly rises to his feet and proclaims with even more confidence "Then we need to change that structure! This world was made by that Yggdrasill guy, right?! If a human or elf built this, then we should be able to change it as well!"

For a few seconds afterwards, there is nothing but silence, but then Tiga breaks into a joyous laugh that leads to him commenting "You speak like the hero, Mithos. He was a sublime idealist. He ended the Ancient War by insisting there was a way for the two warring countries to coexist in peace. Are you saying you can become the next Mithos?"

Lloyd humbly states afterwards "I'm not Mithos. I want to save the two worlds my way, with the help of my friends."

The Vice-Chief rubs the bottom of his beard and says "…I see. In other words, you aren't worried about following past methods. Well then, we shall search for a new path as well."

Sheena glances at Tiga and says to him in stunned disbelief "Vice-Chief, do you mean…" With a nod of his head at the woman, Tiga looks back at Lloyd and says "We will use our information network to aid you. In return, when the path of prosperity for both worlds has been found, we wish to move our people to Sylvarant."

"But I don't have any right to decide something like that." Lloyd remarks, but the Vice-Chief merely shakes his head and insists "All we need is for you to aid us in our move."

Now that a pause had been taken between the Vice-Chief and Lloyd's conversation, Lloyd turns to face his fellow friends and asks of them "…Is everyone okay with us joining forces with the people of Mizuho?"

"If it will change the relationship of the two worlds, of course!" "Well, it doesn't sound like a bad deal." "Let's hurry up and decide, so we can do rescue Presea." Colette, Raine and Genis say respectively. Zelos glances over at Lloyd and says "Hey, as long as Tethe'alla is safe, I don't care what you guys do."

Lloyd turns back to face Tiga and says "Okay then, it's settled. We're going to look for a way to change the two worlds. Let's work together." Tiga nods his head and replies with "Agreed. Then I hereby order Sheena to continue to accompany you. This time, however, not just as an observer, but as a representative. Make us proud."

Sheena nods her head and enthusiastically exclaims "Yes, sir!" Zelos then looks at the Vice-Chief and asks "But, Tiga, you sure you wanna turn the Royals and the Church against you like that?"

Tiga laughs quietly and replies with "Well then, how about if I ask you? Given a choice between the forces which wish to sacrifice one of the worlds, and the force that wishes to preserve both worlds, which would you side with?"

"I'd like to say, 'the one that's likely to win,' but I suppose I'd want to help the side that wants to preserve both worlds." Zelos' answer leads Tiga to nod his head, and then the Vice-Chief turns to face Riku to say to him "And what about you? From what Orochi told me, you are from neither Tethe'alla or Sylvarant. What side do you wish to take?"

The teenage Overlord looks at the Vice-Chief and respectfully answers "If I had chosen any other path, I wouldn't have had the honor of speaking to you now. I believe in Lloyd's plan, even if I somewhat disagree with the heavy idealism."

"That is what I wished to hear. Now, the first thing we shall do is devote all our resources to locating the Rheairds. Fortunately for you, it appears that Sheena attached a guardian to the Rheairds, so we should be able to locate them shortly." Tiga explains. Lloyd nods his head in an appreciative manner and says "Understood. Thank you for your help."

Everyone who was sitting gets on their feet, and Tiga walks to the doorway of his room and politely sees everyone off for now alongside Sheena. Zelos is the only one who stays behind for a moment, and he comments in a quiet, disbelieving tone "Is he for real?" Riku, who was the farthest back, pauses for a moment near the doorway as everyone was heading out so he could intercept Zelos and say to him "What do you mean by that?"

Zelos flinches for a moment as he rounds the corner and sees Riku speak to him. Brushing off the question in a suave manner expected of the man, Zelos says "Why Riku, I have no idea what you're talking about. Come on, lets join up with the others." Zelos wraps his arms around the back of Riku's neck and quickly guides him out of the house while smiling brightly.

Outside, everyone meets up at the center of the village, where Raine looks at Lloyd and says with the highest praise "I'm proud of the way you handled that Lloyd. I'm sure you had to think about that for a while." Lloyd chuckles and says "Of course Professor. This is something I want to really see through to the end. I don't want anyone to ever repeat what Iselia and Luin went through ever again."

With a proud smile on her face, Raine looks away from Lloyd and says to him as he walks "So long as you remember that, we'll always have your back." Lloyd then looks at the blue-haired prisoner walking with them and asks quietly "Say, what's your name?"

The man pauses for a moment and turns around to look at Lloyd, his imposing height causing the boy to step back as he glances up at his eyes. The man gently answers "…Regal." At this particular moment, Zelos and Riku had caught up with the group, and upon hearing the man's true name yet another spark simmered inside the Chosen's brain. Letting go of Riku, Zelos walks up beside Lloyd as the swordsman says "Regal, huh? I'm sorry, but we're gonna have to keep your prisoner for a bit longer."

Regal nods his head in an understanding manner, where Zelos then proceeds to rub the bottom of his chin and say after a moment of thought "Hey Lloyd, I know this is a crazy suggestion, but how about letting' pops her fight, too?"

Genis listens in on this suggestion and turns towards Zelos, stating in disbelief "Even though he might betray us?" Zelos confidently speaks on behalf on the prisoner by saying "He has business with Presea, right? Then he's not going to try anything before he gets a chance to speak with her, you know?"

Raine actually finds merit in this course of action, and comments "Actually, that's not a bad idea." Which causes Genis to exclaim in defensive outrage to his sister "Raine!"

Sheena comments "It sounds like a bad idea, but I don't make a fuss. I also started off as your enemy after all." Lloyd pauses and looks up at the man, seeing a little bit of a trustworthy gleam in his eyes before he hesitantly says "…Well? Will you fight alongside us for now?"

The prisoner nods his head and looks back and forth at the everyone gathered here, vowing to them "All alright. I swear upon my good name, and these shackles that bind me, I shall not betray you."

"Hey, as someone who had some doubts cast on him, you should know that you have my favor for being a part of this group, Regal." Riku politely says to the man. Genis groans at everyone's acceptance of the prisoner in the group, and after shrugging the shoulders he glares at Regal and says to the man harshly "If you do anything even the slightest bit suspicious, I'll burn you to a crisp, got it?"

"Haha, you don't need to remind me of that." Regal happily replies to Genis' little vow. "Well then, welcome to our group Regal!" Colette merrily proclaims.

With their business in Mizuho done for now, everyone began to head for the exit when Orochi suddenly leaps in front of their path and respectfully mentions "It seems the pursuers have left the forest. You should hurry."

Lloyd turns around and glances at everyone while stating "All right, let's head for Altessa's place right away…" A twitching Presea stutters out to Lloyd afterwards "…I…want to go home to my village."

Lloyd takes note of Presea's behavior and says in an apologetic tone "Ah, right…Ozette first, then." Raine comments afterwards "Yes, Presea's parents are probably worried about her. We should head to Ozette."

"Ummm, Orochi was it? Where is Ozette?" Lloyd asks. The ninja points towards the northeast and says "Seek out the largest tree in that direction. Ozette is directly underneath it."

"Thanks, we'll be off now." With that appreciative remark, Lloyd begins to lead the group out of Mizuho and heads northeast. Along the way, Regal walks beside a calmer Presea, asking her kindly "You're name is Presea, correct? About your family…"

Presea glances at Regal for a moment and then looks away with nothing but silence. Before Regal says anything else, Genis runs between the two of them and holds his arms out while proclaiming "H…Hey! Get away from her!" He was frightened by the man's stature, but tried to put on a courageous face for Presea's sake even though she doesn't care.

Regal steps away from Genis and bows his head before saying kindly "I apologize. I didn't realize she had a little knight protecting her." Genis takes the compliment the wrong way and says "Don't make fun of me! I've got magic, your hear me?!"

The little half-elf begins to reach for his kendama when Presea suddenly lifts her left hand up and grabs Genis around his wrist. The boy and Regal stop in place, with Genis glancing at Presea as the girl just stares forward and says "Genis." Genis embarrassingly replies as his heart pumps due to Presea coldly gripping his skin "Wh…What is it? Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

"He bears no hostility. There is no need for combat." Presea's calm assessment of Regal's disposition makes Genis limply state "Ah…oh…" Presea then lets go of Genis' arm and starts to walk away, saying "Also, I have no need for your protection." The cold words spoken leave Genis feeling absolutely devastated, his head hanging low in front of his chest as his arms limp on both sides of his body.

"…Oh." Genis states in a melancholic tone. Regal, feeling somewhat responsible for this event, places his right hand on the half-elf's left shoulder and looks down at him while saying "Don't take it personally Genis, she just isn't capable of understanding what you're doing for her."

Genis harshly brushes Regal off, saying to him quietly "What could you possibly know about this?" before he runs off to join back up with everyone else. Regal lets out a sigh, and then follows up close behind so no one gets suspicious.

Thankfully, the trek from Mizuho to Ozette doesn't take long, especially once the top of the massive tree Orochi mentioned comes into view, and by that point Genis has recovered from being rejected. The group enters from the left side of the village, which is a large moss covered incline made from the trunk of the massive tree. The village was small, perhaps even smaller than Mizuho, but it was filled with vibrant plant life from top to bottom.

The very moment they step down onto Ozette, Presea breaks into a run up the incline, leaving everyone's sight in a matter of seconds. Genis tries to run to catch up with the girl, but fails quickly and is forced to turn back at Lloyd and exclaim "Lloyd! We have to follow her!"

With all of his focus on Presea's departure, Lloyd doesn't hear his friend for a couple moments, and thus his response is a puzzled "Huh? Yeah…" The group then scales the trunk of the tree and try to find where Presea ran off to, but when they reach the main part of the village the citizens immediately start glaring their way in contempt.

Genis and Raine pick up on the glares instantly, for they were all directed at them. But unlike the usual stares they've received in Tethe'alla, these were far more unnatural. This made them feel incredibly uncomfortable, but to alleviate this problem Riku pauses for a moment and turns towards the people while gesturing to Raine and Genis before saying "These two people with us are regular old elves, so try and relax."

The people lessen the intensity of their glares, implying that there was another issue on their minds than just the type of elves that were in their village. As Riku feels satisfied for now and turns back to face the rest of the group, Raine looks at him and quietly says with a half-smile on her face "Thank you." To which the boy replies with a nod of the head.

The group is unable to find Presea anywhere up top, so they head down the trunk on the opposite side of the main village, since they see a little bit of smoke coming up from a chimney down below. Off to the left is a small, barely kept-up abode with vines growing out of the wooden ceiling and a small rickety fence spread around the porch. Presea stands on the porch with another figure in front of her.

He was a tall, lanky man with pulled back purple hair and small red glasses perched just above his pointed nose. He wore a grey robe split apart into six segments that covered his body save for the odd-looking green shoes down below. This strange man spoke to Presea in an even stranger voice as she handed him a few bright looking pieces of wood "…Thank you. Hmm? You brought guests along as well?"

The man glances to the right at the group gathered before Presea's house, and the girl monotonously replies "Porters…" Which makes the man say with the utmost intrigue "Oh, I see…" His eyes shift specifically towards Lloyd and Colette as he turns to face the group.

Genis tries to speak to Presea in a more kind and confident sounding voice after what happened earlier "Presea! We have to make a Key Crest for you!" But without even a moment's thought Presea responds like a robot servant would "My job awaits…goodbye…"

The girl turns around and creaks open the wooden door that's in here way, entering it as Genis watches on in disbelief. The man explains to the group "Only Presea can retrieve the sacred wood used in the ritual at the church. I'm quite pleased that she has finally returned. Hehehehe…"

The man then departs from the porch and heads towards the exit of Ozette, but with a creepy chill crawling down his spine Riku turns his head to glance at the man as he mouths the words "So that is the one Lord Yggdrasill desires…Fascinating…" Before he can be even the slightest bit disturbed by his choice of words, he hears Raine mention "That man…he's a half-elf."

Everyone then turns to face Raine, with Lloyd in particular stating "He is? Now that you mention it, didn't we see him in Meltokio too?" And Colette then shivers a bit while saying "He's creepy…"

Zelos waits a couple moments before saying to Colette "I agree. But…uh…I gotta say that I feel sorry for the guy." The man pulls back and laughs to himself before explaining his reasoning while everyone looks at him curiously "I mean he has to deal with the fact that there are magnificent specimens of males around like me. Hehe."

Genis swiftly deflates Zelos' ego by stating "Nah, I'd say you two are on the same level." The Chosen folds his arms in front of his chest and glares down at Genis while his right eyelid twitches and he states "…I heard that, you little twerp!"

Brushing off the childish bickering between Zelos and Genis, Regal looks at Lloyd and says "At any rate, we should have a talk with Presea." The swordsman points out "She hasn't been very talkative before, but it's worth a shot now that she's back home."

Though it detoured them from going to Altessa's house for the moment, the group approached Presea's home, slipping in through the still open door and immediately noticing the young girl hard at work around the house. Dedicating herself to cleaning and sorting what's around in a slow and precise manner, it looked as though nothing could stop her from doing her designated tasks.

Everyone examined the house, noticing that at the very least Presea did manage to keep the place clean. But there was still this gripping feeling that something was wrong here, that there was something Presea wasn't telling the group. The girl ran to the left as Regal examined the pictures on the wall to the right of the entrance, feeling some spark of realization and nostalgia as he seemingly recognizes the little girl standing next to Presea in one of the photos.

"…Could it be?" Regal whispers to himself, while in the meantime Lloyd catches a whiff of something in the direction Presea headed, a rancid odor that was unlike anything he had ever smelled before. "What is that smell…?" He questions as he glances towards the room Presea ran into.

Lloyd begins to walk towards the room himself, with everyone but Regal following him not long afterwards. Inside the room they find a completely different atmosphere than what was in the other room. Cobwebs were scattered all over the walls, the cabinet had open draws and a shattered vase on top of it, and there was a bed with a lumped up sheet just close by. Presea ran back and forth between the bed and the cabinet, this time pretending to clean and examine her surroundings without any control.

While most of the group observed Presea, Raine decided to investigate the source of the smell and headed towards the bed. Riku watched as she moved one step closer towards discovering the truth, cursing inside his head that he could say nothing to keep her away now that the events had been set in motion. Raine glances down at the head of the bed, and instantly her calm demeanor completely breaks. She stares down horrified and loses control of her motor functions as she falls to her knees and grasps onto the head of the bed with one hand while feeling the disturbance of fluids in her stomach.

It took every last inch of her willpower to not throw-up, and once she catches her breath she stutters out "…Oh my…how horrible…" Zelos, Sheena and Riku quickly run over to the bed to see what was going on and help Raine get back onto her feet respectively, providing enough of a wall so that no one else would have the horror of witnessing what was inside the bed.

There was a corpse so decayed in nature that it was both a miracle and a curse that you could still see it's flesh. The eyeballs were gone, and the hair had blown away from the skull. The bed was filled with juices that provided most of the smell in this room, but in spite of the corpse's appearance the most revolting thing about it was that Presea was allowing this thing to lay on the bed in the first place.

Zelos takes this matter seriously and comments "What the…this is not cool." While Sheena says "How could this have happened…" When Raine is back onto her feet she throws a pitying glance at Presea and whispers "This is most like the effect of the Exspheres' parasitism. Presea has no idea what's become of the person in that bed."

Genis glances horrifyingly at Presea and murmurs to himself "How could that…" But stop when he sees Regal try to approach Presea and ask her kindly "Presea. Are you not coming with us?"

Presea acknowledges Regal's presence and says while continuing to work "I must…do my job…" The answer makes Regal's glance at the girl in a melancholy manner, the reason for his pity being kept all to himself as he turns back to face the rest of the group.

Raine starts to walk back with Zelos and Sheena, commenting to everyone after getting her bearings "…Let's leave Presea here for now." This completely takes Lloyd off-guard and leads to him proclaiming "Professor, how can you say that?!"

Raine explains calmly to the understandably peeved Lloyd "If we try to move her, she will just fight back. All we can do for her now is see if Altessa will repair her Key Crest." After considering his professor's words for a moment, Lloyd says "…No, you're right. Lets get moving."

The group begins to depart from Presea's house sans Riku, who stands at the side of the bed and looks down at the corpse, speaking to himself "…Why is something like this allowed to happen? This whole mess could have been stopped by the original Elemental Overlord before it got to this sickening point, but it wasn't…In fact, why am I even here now? …My contributions are minor at best, and-"

"Hey gloomy gus, the corpse already has enough company. Come on, we need to get a move on to Altessa's, remember?" Zelos' cheery voice interrupts Riku's reflecting commentary, causing him to turn his head and see the Chosen gesture out the door he stands in the middle of. Nodding his head in agreement, Riku follows Zelos out the door, but not before glancing back one last time at Presea and thinking to himself _"…Dwarven Vow #2: Never abandon someone in need…Thanks Lloyd, you've give me a reason to press on, even if the path of this world is set in stone." _

_Next Time: The Secluded Dwarf_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: A Cynical Old Dwarf**

Leaving Presea in her home for the time being, the group departs from Ozette to make their way back to Altessa's house past the forest. Along the way, Raine holds her right hand below her chin and thinks about the presence of that strange half-elf man at Presea's house. "Hmmm…"

"Something the matter Raine?" Genis asks as he walks beside his sister. "Genis, do you recall seeing that man before?" The professor asks while deep in thought.

"Huh?" Genis has to pause and recall the man in question before responding with "Now that you mention it, didn't we see him at the Meltokio church?"

Raine nods her head and pieces together what she recalled about the man "A half-elf associating himself with the Pope and a girl who was part of the Angelus Project…" Lloyd overhears the words of his professor and comments "Professor, you can't be suggesting that the man we saw was a Desian, right?"

"Unfortunately for Presea, I think he is. The fact that he paid close attention to you and Colette just further proves it." Raine states, which causes Genis' eyes to widen in a panic as he exclaims to her "Then we have to get to Altessa before it's too late!"

"I have to agree with Genis here." Riku interjects from a few feet in front of the half-elf kid. Glancing over his right shoulder, Riku comments afterwards "That man obviously had an eye on us since you got Presea to travel with you, and now that he's got her back in a stationary location he can just pick her back up at any time. Of course, I don't think he'll do that unless the Angelus Project finishes inside of her."

"So shouldn't one of us have stayed behind to protect her in case he DOES show up early?!" Genis frantically asks.

"Then we'd be making their job easier. I know you feel affection towards Presea, but we can't afford any risks when we have so many enemies after us." Riku calmly replies to Genis' question, and the half-elf boy says "…If only we still had the Rheairds, then Presea wouldn't have to wait long."

"It's a time involved task, but considering how things have been going having the Rheairds would probably make our enemies act faster." Raine explains, and it was with this explanation Genis just sinks into melancholy and says nothing more on the matter.

The group makes their way back to the forest and take the first right path past the entrance, which was now devoid of any Papal Knights. It doesn't take long for them to exit the forest, where they walk a few minutes until they reach an abode at the side of the nearby mountain. The atmosphere became much drier as the cracked and rocky ground leads up to the beige colored wooden door.

Off to the right of the right of the house is a pot and a box filled with crafting supplied, including a pick-axe and shovel. They appear to have not been used in quite some time since rust was surrounding the metal. Everything was also eerily quiet, with little sign of active life in the area. Before the group entered the house, Lloyd bends forward and peeks into the wood-barred window off to the right of the door and can barely see anything inside, save for an inactive fireplace and an empty worktable.

"I don't think he's home." Lloyd quietly says. Colette quickly throws herself on top of Lloyd's back and glares through the window while saying with the utmost excitement in her voice "Don't worry Lloyd, I'll use my angel eyes to find Altessa!"

Lloyd strains himself to keep Colette held up on his back, his body giving out a little sweat as he groans and glances up at his friend and says "A-Angel eyes? Colette, I don't think you have-"

"I see something Lloyd!" Colette enthusiastically proclaims, which causes Lloyd to say dryly "…Never mind. Did you find Altessa?"

"Ummm…Lloyd, do you know what gender Altessa is?" Colette awkwardly asks. Lloyd states "Colette, you were there when Kate told us that. Why do you ask?"

"Because I only see a girl in this house…And she's really green looking." Colette's puzzled remark causes Lloyd to turn his head back towards the window. Standing straight against the window is a girl around Colette's age with a long bright-green ponytail and an arced black metal headpiece. She had sky-blue eyes with no pupils and a slim figure perfectly shown thanks to her pants-less black and neon-green dress.

The girl raised her right hand up and closed her eyelids slowly, a creak being heard coming from her body as she said in an emotionless, feminine voice "HELLO? WHO ARE YOU?"

The sight of this girl makes Lloyd temporarily freak out and pull back, and because he forgot about Colette being on his back when he stands upright in recoil the girl falls straight off and lands on her rear-end. Thankfully something soft was there to break her fall…That soft thing being Zelos himself, naturally.

"Ugh…I'm…Not exactly used to being on the bottom…" The Chosen of Tethe'alla groans out as Colette swiftly rises to her feet and turns around to frantically apologize to Zelos "I'm sorry! Are you ok Zelos?"

Zelos, as evidenced by his quick uprising, says to Colette as he rubs his stomach and grimaces slightly "Hehe…It'd take more than that to take the wind out of me, my dear sweet Colette…"

As Colette nods happily and turns back around, Lloyd rubs his back while Zelos rubs his stomach, both figures quietly groaning in pain as the door opens up in front of them and the girl they saw before stands underneath it and asks in a monotonous tone "HELLO? WHO ARE YOU?" Her repeated words carried a little static in them at this closer range.

Once Lloyd got rid of most of the pain, he held one hand up and cracked half a smile while saying to the girl "Ah, excuse us…We've heard that there is a dwarf living here. Is there any chance we could see him?" The girl registers the boy's question and responds swiftly and kindly "YOU DESIRE A MEETING WITH MASTER ALTESSA. PLEASE COME INSIDE."

The girl rotates herself back around and enters the house. After a curious pause at how the girl spoke and moved, the group followed her inside, where she ends up guiding them to the far left corner of the house. Sitting at a small desk with a few tools strewn about is a small, dark grey bearded man wearing an olden-style green robe and custom-made leather boots. The man is poked in the back by the girl and immediately turns to look at her, grumbling to himself before he notices the presence of eight strangers at the top of the small staircase.

As the girl backs away, the man stands up off his chair and glares through his eyelids at the group, saying in a groggy, elderly voice "Who are you people?" Lloyd kindly steps forth and looks at the man, saying respectively to him "My name is Lloyd. We've come in regards to Presea."

As the name of the girl he wishes to help leaves his lips, the man's faces grimaces in shock, and it is only as Lloyd finishes explaining himself with "We heard about you from Kate in Sybak" that the man stamps his foot down angrily and states "Leave!"

The immediate response puzzles and frightens Lloyd, who can only respond with a wide-eyed "What?" before the man turns back towards the desk and says "I don't want anything more to do with that girl! Get out of here!"

Lloyd and most of the group look at Altessa in a disgusted or disbelieving manner and then proceed to back off away from the dwarf's work area with the strange girl following them close behind to escort them out. Before Lloyd could finish leaving, he turns around to look at the girl and asks of her with his face still distorted in disbelief "What was that all about?!"

The girl explains "I APOLOGIZE. THE MASTER DOES NOT WANT TO GET INVOLVED WITH PRESEA." Genis can't accept that answer, and with a swing of his right arm out he proclaims "Why? …He doesn't care if she dies?!"

The girl faces the half-elf boy and says to him "IT IS NOT THAT. IT IS BECAUSE THE MASTER REGRETS WHAT HE HAS DONE." Colette stands in front of the girl and grabs her hands, holding them up close to her face as she leans forward and pleas "Then please, save Presea! All she needs is for her Key Crest to be fixed."

With no physical response besides a blank stare at Colette, the emotionless girl states "…I DO NOT KNOW IF THAT WOULD BE IN HER BEST INTEREST." Lloyd says in a flabbergasted manner "Why? How could anything be worse than living in that cruel condition while waiting to die?!" His voice grows louder until the end of his sentence.

After a momentary pause, the girl replies "IF YOU ARE THAT COMMITTED, THEN YOU SHOULD SEARCH FOR INHIBITOR ORE." Considering his knowledge of how Key Crests work, Lloyd is surprised by this remark and comments "Presea's Key Crest isn't made out of inhibitor ore?"

The girl is about to explain with "CORRECT. HER CREST IS-" But her explanation is cut off with an angered outburst from Altessa "Tabatha! What are you doing? GET RID OF THEM!"

Tabatha looks at the group and explains "I APOLOGIZE, I MUST RETURN. PLEASE COME BACK AGAIN. I WILL ATTEMPT TO PERSUADE HIM." The girl then starts to walk off to join Altessa, and with their efforts proving fruitless at the moment the group decides to leave the house before planning their next move.

Riku stays behind though, saying briefly to Lloyd "I'll join you guys in a moment" Before following behind Tabatha with quiet footsteps.

Altessa sits at the desk, solemnly thinking to himself after this encounter with the group when Riku says to him at the top of the small staircase "Dwarven Vow #2: Never abandon someone in need."

"…What do you think you're still doing here?" Is Altessa's embittered response. Riku replies in turn "Reminding you that you're still a dwarf."

"I haven't forgotten who I am…But what I did to that girl can never be undone." When Altessa says this, he shakes his head and sits down on the short chair behind his body, while Riku gestures at him with his right hand and states "You never know until you try, and judging by the fact that you've been sitting here all this time wallowing in self-pity…I can imagine you haven't tried at all."

"…Please leave my house." Altessa quietly and politely asks of the boy. Riku turns to face the door out, but not before smiling at the dwarf and saying to him "We'll be back with the Inhibitor Ore, and then we can continue this conversation, Altessa."

Riku then exits the house, where the group is discussing the matter of where to find Inhibitor ore. Regal was currently explaining to everyone "I've heard it's mined in the mountain range that extends between Altamira and the Ymir Forest. I would like to help if you're going to create a Key Crest for Presea. I can lead you to the mine."

Lloyd, for being a dull as he is, was starting to recognize a pattern in Regal's actions and asked him "Just what is your relation to Presea, anyways?" Regal shakes his head and calmly states "There is none."

Raine comments in turn, however "Yet you sure seem concerned about her." Regal says to her truthfully "Having seen what happens to an Exsphere user, you can understand just why I'd want to help her."

Lloyd breaks up the two's discussion by stating "Well, either, you haven't done anything suspicious so far. You're welcome to come along with us."

Regal nods his head in an appreciative manner and explains "Inhibitor ore is found relatively near the surface of the Exsphere mine. The mine I know of is across the sea from here, on the southern continent."

Having listened in to everything said so far, a contemplating Zelos slips into his cheerful self and says "You said Altamira, right? That place is awesome! Let's stop by there on the way!" To which Sheena groans and shrugs her shoulders while holding her fingertips against her forehead and saying "We don't have time to hang out at that gaudy resort!"

With the revelation that the mines are seabound from here, Raine shivers and says "The sea? …We're going out to sea again?" Which is contrasted by Lloyd and Colette respectively exclaiming in joy "Okay, then! Let's go!" "Yeah! Let's hurry!"

Most of the group walks off afterwards, with only Zelos and Regal staying behind for the moment. The Chosen of Tethe'alla stares at Regal, something the man picks up on a subtle acknowledgement as he's asked "…By the way, this has been bugging me for a while now." Recognizing that Zelos knew more than anticipated, Regal brushed off his words and went to catch up with the group, causing Zelos to lean back and comment "…Fine, ignore me. Not very friendly, are ya?"

Thus the group starts to head for the coast to use the Elemental Cargo. Along the way, Lloyd stands beside Riku and asks him "Say Riku, I've been meaning to ask this for a while now." Riku glances at him and says "What's up Lloyd?"

"You said you can control all elements, right?" Riku nods his head, even though technically that didn't hold true right now. "Would that include stuff like Inhibitor Ore and whatever Presea's Key Crest is made of?"

Riku carefully explains to Lloyd "I could probably handle Inhibitor Ore, but Presea's Key Crest is made of a very unknown material combined with a magic source…If I'm not familiar with the material, I can't manipulate or create it. Unfortunately, right now my Earth based powers aren't functioning."

Lloyd blinks a couple times and says "Huh? How come?" Riku smiles and replies with "I have a theory on that one, but I'll have to ask Sheena about it." This just raises further questions for the swordsman, and he says "Sheena…?"

"Don't concern yourself with that Lloyd. Just worry about Presea." Riku humbly states, which drops the conversation between them after Lloyd politely says "Alright, if you insist." Lloyd then backs off and communicates with Genis and Sheena for a bit. They reach the coast of the continent in a matter of minutes afterwards, and after activating the EC and using Undine to power it again they start to cross the sea with Regal's guidance to head for the Exsphere mines.

Along the way, Riku thought it would be a good idea to bring his question up to Sheena at long last. After a few minutes time, Sheena walks away after smacking Zelos slightly for a perverted comment, where Riku then glances her way and asks "Hey Sheena, you have a moment to spare?"

Sheena calms down after mumbling to herself about Zelos and pauses diagonally away from Riku, saying to him quietly "Huh? What is it Riku?"

Riku pulls himself away from the wall he was leaning against and turns to look at Sheena, explaining to her briefly "While I was in Sybak, I read a book that explained Summon Spirits to me. I know there are four in Tethe'alla and four in Sylvarant. Since you went over to Sylvarant at one point and I saw you use Undine, I'm just wondering if you picked up the other three as well."

Sheena reaches into her clothes to pull out a few seals while commenting "I'm surprised you did all this research. But anyways…" Lifting her hand up, the ninja holds three different colored seals in front of her body before explaining "I didn't get the fourth one, but here's the summon seals for Efreet, Sylph and Undine."

A puff of smoke comes up on Sheena's left shoulder, and Corrine sits down and nudges against Sheena's face. Lifting her hand up to pet the little fox, Sheena comments "Hehe, Corrine is also an artificial Summon Spirit. So why did you want to know about my Summon Spirits?"

Riku pounds his right fist down on his open left hand and nods his head, saying in a manner puzzling Sheena "Ok, so my theory was correct about my powers."

"What are you talking about?" Sheena asks as she glances at him. Kindly smiling at the girl, Riku says to her "I'll just keep this between you and me for now."

"It should have been obvious by now that I've been to more than one world. There's been a couple times that most of my elemental powers have been suppressed or taken away, forcing me to reclaim them. Right now, the only elements I can use are Fire, Water, Grass and Wind." Riku's explanation is interrupted by Sheena realizing "The same elements as the Summon Spirits I formed a pact with…!"

Riku nods and then continues on with "Knowing this, it's pretty obvious that the rest of my powers will be restored if we pact with the other five Summon Spirits." This information makes Sheena take pause and think solemnly to herself, her head drooping slightly in depression as Corrine pokes at the side of her head to try and cheer her up.

"…Sheena?" Riku asks. The girl replies "First the Rheairds and now your powers…Both require me to make a pact with Volt, and I-I…" With Sheena on the verge of shivering in sadness, Riku says to her calmly "Don't worry about it now. I am not demanding you make a pact with Volt now. Right now we're dealing with Presea, and we'll worry about the Summon Spirits when the time comes."

Sheena lifts her head up and inquires "Are you ok with that?" Riku nods his head and says to the girl "I'm perfectly fine with the powers I have now, it hasn't lessened my combat ability. Just know that when the time does come for us to deal with the Summon Spirits, I have confidence that you can pact with them all, even Volt. Think about it, you already have three under your control, right?"

"Y-You're right." Sheena says with a little more confidence in her voice, and she continues on with "Thank you." Riku nods his head and points out "Hey, you helped me out too, so thanks for that."

Sheena then walks off to have a conversation with someone else, while Riku folds his arms against his chest and thinks in a contemplative manner _"This thing that keeps happening to my powers, this can only be caused by an outside force…But who? Who could keep messing with my elements?"_

This was a question that couldn't be answered during this current quest, so Riku just didn't let it linger in his mind. After another hour or so of sea travel, the group docks near a man-made cave entrance and exits the EC, where Lloyd excitedly uses the wing pack to store it again.

Everyone then turns towards the cave entrance, where Regal comments "This is the Toize Valley Mine. Be careful as we enter, I heard that there is a defense system to keep anyone but the workers out." With this cautionary hint, the group walks into the mines to seek out some Inhibitor Ore.

The cave was surprisingly bright on the inside without the use of lights on the walls. Instead, the gleam of two orbs on a large, heavily fortified wall gives the area a blue-green glow. With the doorway to the mines sealed tightly, everyone is forced to pause in place and check the area out. Zelos comments "So is this the defense system you mentioned? Doesn't seem that impressive, honestly."

Looking around the area and hearing not even a single sound besides the echo of his voice, Zelos further states "How eerie, it's like the place is a ghost mine." Sheena groans and exclaims to the man "Will you be quiet?! We're trying to concentrate here!"

Zelos says "Aren't we touchy today?" In a suave-as-usual manner. Regal glances at the wall and quietly comments as Lloyd walks past him "…This isn't good." As Lloyd stares up and down at the wall he asks "What's wrong?"

Regal notices some creaking in the wall and comments as he turns to face everyone else "Someone destroyed the system when they tried to force their way through. The system is out of control."

"And we can't get through because of it?" Raine asks, to which Regal replies with a nod of his head. A loud 'chink' directs everyone's attention towards Lloyd as he pulls out his two swords and exclaims "Then let's bust it up even more!" He showed a little enthusiasm at the idea as he spoke.

"That's our Lloyd! Always coming up with easy to understand plans!" Zelos jokingly comments. Colette also happily says "If Lloyd's ok with it, then so am I!" Genis shrugs his shoulders and says after a sigh "…Are you sure? What if this backfires?"

Riku turns towards Regal and asks him "Would you say the defense system would explode and cause a cave-in if we attacked it?" Regal holds his hand against his chin and comments "I wouldn't think so…" With this bit of approval, the teenage Overlord draws out his sword and exclaims "Then tear down this wall we shall!"

Zelos whips out his sword and runs at one of the orbs, performing a hard slash that ends up making the defense system aware of their presence. A turret activates at the center of the black and green inscription behind the group. Riku deals with that using a simple diagonal sword swipe, and he leaps back as the turret explodes to avoid taking a hit while using a pocket of wind to prevent the shrapnel from hitting anyone else.

Genis casts Thunder Blade on the defense system, dealing a hefty amount of damage to the circuitry while preventing it from fighting back. At the same time Lloyd does an upward arc-shaped slash that he follows up on with a downward arc slash, and behind him Colette holds one hand against her chest while levitating above the ground with her angel wings. A ring of pink light surrounds the ground below her feet, and after a flash of light she fires a multitude of glowing pink angel feathers at the wall.

The bombardment of feathers pierces right through the defense system's walls, opening the way for Regal to deliver a sharp kick into one of the processor units on the right side of the door, destroying it completely. Zelos punctures another unit on the left side with his sword tip, which causes a chain reaction within the defense wall that shuts it down entirely. The door creaks open, allowing entrance to the rest of the mine.

Zelos pulls his sword out and flips it back into his holster, saying in a jovial manner "Well that was easy! Now, let's go get that whatchamacallit!" Genis quickly and angrily reminds him "Inhibitor Ore!" The Chosen snaps his fingers and says "Yeah, that thing! Come on, let's go!"

Regal tilts his head and says quietly in thought "…They're all so violent." He says nothing else as he follows the group through the doors.

Inside of the mines is a bunch of ancient looking machinery that still operates perfectly, but considering the type of mine this is everyone here wishes that they wouldn't be working. Finding these technological marvels astounding, Raine's eyes lighten up with sheer joy as she lets out a booming laugh and says in an almost squealing voice "The machines in this mine are fascinating. Look at their sturdiness, their perfect movements, their ability to carry all these rocks and Exspheres!"

Regal is surprised by Raine's sudden shift in behavior, but at the same time is pleased to hear her speak intellectually about her surroundings and offers up more knowledge to her in the form of "This was a mine from the ancient times. These machines are relics from that time."

Raine swiftly turns her head at Regal and exclaims to him "W-What?! Rather than preserving ancient relics, they're still actively using them here?!" Regal is taken aback by this remark, and with an embarrassed tilt of his head that Raine doesn't pick up on in her frenzy he says "Well, I suppose you could look at it that way, but-"

Raine swings her body to face the machines and stamps her foot down while proclaiming "Blasphemy! This cannot be allowed! Bring me the one responsible, now!" Regal merely sighs at what he had just set in motion and says in a calm, apologetic tone "I…I'm sorry." The words fall deaf on Raine's ears though.

After using a lift one after the other the group crosses to the other side of the room they are in, where Regal directs them towards a tunnel to the left. However, a large grey boulder impedes their progress. "We can't keep going with that in the way!" Genis obviously points out.

Zelos turns to face Regal and asks him slyly "What now, Mr. Regal?" Regal rubs the bottom of his chin, perturbed by the presence of the boulder as he explains "In case something like this happens, a special item has been prepared in this mine. I'm sorry, but please go back to the previous tunnel. 'It' should be in there somewhere."

"What do you mean by 'it'?" Zelos calmly asks. Regal turns around and ignores the question as he says "Come on, let's go." The group walks off for the special item, while Zelos says in a flustered manner "Hey, don't leave me behind! …." While he's alone for a few seconds, the Chosen comments "Is it just me, or has his personality changed since we got here?"

After Zelos catches up with everyone, the group makes their way to another Sorcerer's Ring altar close by. Lloyd activates it and holds it up in front of his face while commenting "Wonder what it can do now?"

Regal nervously suggests "I would advise against using that in close proximity to your body." Lloyd lowers his hand and glances back at Regal while asking "Huh? What do you mean?"

"The Sorcerer's Ring was used here to blast rock by creating a condensed ball of mana that explodes in three seconds." Regal's explanation leads to Lloyd awkwardly glancing at the ring and then turning around and saying in an understanding manner "Gotcha. I'll try and be careful."

"You know, I could have just cut the rocks down with my sword if I set it out fire." Riku points out as the group starts to head back to the boulder. "The boulders are made of a specific stone that can only be affected by mana." Regal explains, which was honestly something that made some degree of sense considering the contents.

Back at the boulder, Lloyd uses the ring to blow it up easily, and after recovering from the near deafening explosion they continued on through the mines once more. Along the way the group runs into a mechanical gate, which causes Zelos to comment "Damn, another gate!" Regal calmly points out as the group stops in place "Relax, the inhibitor ore is not that way." He flinches after realizing what he just made note of.

But it was too late, the perceptive Lloyd asks "How do you know that?" Which forces Regal to admit "…I've worked in this mine before." Raine and Zelos both think about this remark to themselves, with Raine commenting "…I see. Then let's be on our way." While Zelos whispers "Hmm. You worked in a mine? Yeah, right…"

With that little distraction out of the way, the group advanced on through the mines, using the ring to blow up any obstacle that stands in their way. It can be said that Lloyd probably enjoyed using the mana bomb a little too much, but he thankfully didn't cause damage to the structure of the mine.

After passing through most of the mine, the group ends up in a secluded cavern filled with boxes and a single waterfall. Regal turns to face the group and says to them all "This is the inhibitor ore mining area."

Lloyd glances around the room at all of the boxes strewn about, commenting in a puzzled tone "Umm…Which one has the inhibitor ore?" Regal calmly suggests to everyone "Hmm…Let's search the area. There may be some left over in the wooden boxes."

Zelos impatiently says to Regal "Oh, please, I'm not going through all those boxes! Let's just blow them all up!" To the dismay of most of the group, Lloyd actually agrees with the Chosen's plan enthusiastically.

"Lloyd…You just want to keep using the Sorcerer's Ring, don't you?" Genis points out. Regal lets out a distressed sigh at how Lloyd is handling the ring, but Riku notices this and reassures him by saying "Hey, Zelos does have a point. Breaking apart the boxes will be quicker than opening them up one by one."

The teenage Overlord pulls out his sword and says to Regal "If it helps, I'll cut some of the boxes down myself. I shouldn't be able to cut down any Inhibitor Ore inside."

Riku and Lloyd work together on opposing sides of the cavern, going through box after box until Lloyd eventually finds the ore they need. Regal notices that Lloyd's efforts have succeeded, and says to him "Good work Lloyd."

Colette cheers "Woo-hoo! We can save Presea now!" Hearing the success from the other side of the cavern, Riku immediately leaps across the room and dispels his sword while commenting "So now all we have to do is create a Key Crest, right?"

Lloyd stands up and nods his head, saying to Riku "Yeah." Regal asks "How long will it take?"

Lloyd explains quickly "TO be honest, only a dwarf could do it right. But if I carve the charm directly into this, I think it'll serve in place of a Key Crest. It that's all right, I can make it right away. Wait just a little bit, ok?"

The group lets Lloyd sit down and work on the Inhibitor Ore for a while, enjoying the calming environment around them until he finishes up his work a few minutes later. Lifting the charm up, Lloyd examines it closely and says "…I think this will do. Later, once Presea has returned to her normal self, let's have Dad or Altessa make a real one."

As Lloyd gets on his feet, Regal comments "I understand. Then it's time we return. It is unbearable to leave Presea in that house steeped with the stench of death." Lloyd nods his head in agreement.

Everyone starts to walk back out of the mines, but as they near the dismantled defense system they find three people blocking their way. There were two lightly armored knights with beak-shaped helmets, and they were both taking orders from a portly man wearing a green miner's outfit with a little patch of hair atop his otherwise bald head. "It's not good, there're no Exspheres around here, either." The portly man says in a disappointed voice.

Regal's muscles tighten in disbelief and anger as he exclaims "…Vharley!" The man flinches in surprise and turns around to look at the cuffed up man, saying in a jolly tone of voice "Regal! So you're the one who destroyed the guard system outside."

Lloyd blinks a few times and asks "Ummm…Who're you?" Zelos explains in a puzzled tone "That's…Vharley, the Expshere broker. What's he doing here?"

Regal steps forward and angrily glares at Vharley, saying in a rather unhinged tone "Why are you here?! Why has the Pope let you stay free?! That's not what I agreed to!"

The knights beside Vharley walk forward and brandish their swords, but the portly man brushes them aside and arrogantly glares up at Regal while laughing. He then goes on to say "Did you think the Pope would REALLY keep a promise to a murderer? Have you forgotten your promise to bring us Colette? I guess so, because you joined up with them instead!" The man's tone was completely nonchalant as he said all this.

Regal's muscles creak at the joints of his cuffs, and he proclaims to Vharley as he starts to kneel down "Silence! If the Pope will not fulfill his promise, then I will punish you myself!"

Vharley recognizes Regal's stance, and immediately cowers back as the man leaps into the air and sticks his foot out to dive straight at the portly man. Vharley and his two knights back away just as Regal crashes into the ground with all of his strength, his impact fracturing the ground so hard that the pathway nearly collapses beneath his feet.

Regal is covered by a cloud of dust rock as Vharley panics and says "N-No way! I'm getting out of here!" He then quickly flees from the mines with his two companions, which is followed up by Regal standing upright and pushing forward while exclaiming "Vharley!"

Colette calmly asks Regal as she walks up from behind "Mr. Regal…How do you know that man?" While Genis follows up with a concerned "He called you a murderer…"

Regal grimaced slightly at what was being said of him, but knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt that since his past was being revealed one bit at a time it wouldn't hurt to be honest about this bit. Turning around to face the rest of the group while saying "I am a prisoner serving time for the crime of murder. I won't blame you if you look down on me."

Lloyd is interested to know more of the details and asks "What happened?" Regal shakes his head and says to the disheartened Lloyd "…Explaining would be an excuse. I committed a crime. That's all that needs to be said."

After a few moments of silence, Lloyd closes his eyelids and replies to Regal with "…My stupid actions have killed many people…I don't know what you did, and your crime won't go away, but when you're suffering, it's all right to at least say so."

Colette follows up on this with an awkward and rather cheesy sounding response "Um, I don't know how to explain it very well, but I think we have the Goddess inside all our hearts. So I think the Goddess also bears the burden of your sins with you." Regal raises an eyebrow at what Colette just said, and the girl nervously backs off and says "Umm…That's all."

Regal closes his eyelids and murmurs to himself while thinking about what the two had just mentioned to him. His response to them both is "…Perhaps someday I will have the opportunity to tell the story…I apologize…"

After that moment the group as a whole drops the subject of Regal's past transgressions and they continue to exit the mines, keeping Vharley's presence in mind as they set up the EC and prepare to head back to Ozette to save Presea.

Along the way, Genis slowly approaches Regal in a rather awkward manner, looking down at the ground as he mentions quietly "…You've…killed a human being." Regal was both surprised and somewhat saddened to mention in response "…That's correct."

The two share a rather melancholy stare between each other, leading to Regal saying in an apologetic tone "…I apologize. I imagine it's not easy traveling with a criminal. I hope you can tolerate me for a short while. Just enough for us to save Presea from the curse of her Esphere."

Genis mentions "…I…I'm a murderer, too." This sentence makes Regal stare down at Genis in disbelief. The fact that a person his age is saying something like that almost calmly was rather perturbing to the man as he expressed it with a simple "…What?"

"I've hurt countless people in order to protect myself." Genis follows up with. Regal is silent for a few moments and waits as the half-elf states "I don't know what it was you did…But I won't tell you to leave just because you've killed people."

"…I see." Regal felt a little bit happier knowing that Genis was warming up to him a bit more, and the half-elf follows up with "Because in the end, we're all the same."

The man cracks a half-smile and says "Thank you." Genis perks up a little more and exclaims "But that doesn't mean I like you, understand?!" Regal laughs at the response given to him and says happily "I see…Thank you, Genis."

Riku, who was listening in on the conversation between Regal and Genis, says as Genis walks off "All of us here have killed someone or something before, but what separates us from the Desians and Cruxis is that we don't enjoy killing. The fact that Genis approached you like that proves how much of a conscience we all have."

"You've killed someone before?" Regal asks in surprise, since from his perspective Riku wasn't that much older looking than Genis. "My role in the universe entails that, naturally…But I'm talking about something else entirely. Because of one mistake, one of the greatest heroes I ever knew died. And it was all my fault."

"…But you weren't the direct cause of their death." Regal points out. Riku folds his arms and leans back against the wall, replying to the man in kind "You're right, I wasn't. But in the end, it was my poor judgment on the situation that led to his demise. A poor judgment born from inexperience…No excuses to be said, just the cold hard truth of the matter."

"So you still carry the weight of guilt around…" Regal wisely comments. Riku adds on to that with "You know, I think that's a better way to describe us all. We're all doing the best we can to shed away the guilt created by one crucial moment in our lives."

"Can one truly do that?" Regal asks of the boy. Riku, who just mentioned his own guilt, could only respond with a simple "I don't really know how to answer that."

"…" Regal hums to himself, finding that Riku's point held a little less weight considering his answer. The two then drop their conversation then and there, for there was nowhere else it could go…

_Next Time: Mizuho's Tragedy_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Conquering the Past**

After taking care of business in the Toize Valley Mine, the group takes the EC back to the other continent, which allows them to then make a quick trip back to Ozette to help Presea. But as they approach the house from the southern part of the village they find a citizen and three Papal Knights looming around.

The man turns around as he hears the group's footsteps and exclaims "That's them! The wanted criminals!" Riku draws out his sword immediately and says quietly "Well, so much for expecting more from the people of Ozette…"

Zelos suavely states in disbelief "Ah crap, not the Papal Knights again!" Sheena groans and says afterwards "Why do they always show up where we're going?!"

The leader of the knights wearing red armor steps forward and says to the Chosen of Tethe'alla kindly "Well, well, if it isn't Master Zelos. I trust you are well."

As Lloyd brings out his swords, he comments in a rather annoyed tone "Why are you so persistent?!" The knight's leader replies "Because we require your Chosen, denizen of the declining world! Capture her alive my men!"

The knights take their pikes and run at the group, but Riku steps ahead and swings his sword upward while coating in a swirl of air. Three gusts of wind rise up beneath the feet of the Papal Knights and launch them straight into the air. Their cries of surprise fade away quickly as they fly straight up into the main part of the village and fall entirely unconscious. The man who squealed on the knights quickly runs off to save his own life.

Riku dispels his sword and rubs the back of his head while saying in a tone of embarrassment towards their defeated foes "I'm honestly shocked that word hasn't spread about the other knights' lack of success."

"The Pope is probably covering up his failures to save face." Zelos explains. Colette then says to the group in an apologetic tone "It's my fault again. I'm so sorry, everyone."

Zelos rolls his eyes and then faces Colette, explaining to her in a gentleman-like tone "Don't be silly. They're after my life, too. The Professor and Genis are wanted because they're half-elves. Sheena is from Mizuho, now considered a village of traitors. And Regal is considered a traitor as well. Lloyd, Riku and sweet little Presea are the only ones not on the Pope's hit list, but they can handle themselves just fine."

"…Thanks." Colette says in a chipper tone. Lloyd feels the need to at least remind Colette "Stop thinking everything's your fault."

The girl turns to Lloyd and says in a somewhat weaker tone of voice "I-I'm sorry Lloyd." Lloyd notices that something's odd with her voice but says anyways "You don't need to apologize for it…" The very moment he finishes his sentence, Lloyd watches as Colette suddenly falls onto her knees and closes her eyelids while grimacing painfully. Her arms hang limp beside her body while everyone stares down at her in shock.

"C-Colette?!" Lloyd is the only one to verbally express concern, which he then follows up by looking at Raine and saying "Professor, Collete's…!" The half-elf takes swift action and walks up to the girl, holding the back of her right hand against her head and commenting "She's running a fever. But what could be causing this much pain?"

A familiar voice calls out to the group from behind "…Move…Please leave this…to me…" Sounding more robotic than usual was Presea, who walked between a surprised Genis and a concerned Lloyd and stopped herself to the left of Raine. The half-elf puzzlingly comments "Presea? A…All right…" Raine is willing to put all of her faith into the girl's help and immediately stands aside.

Presea stands in front of Colette and is motionless for a few seconds as the Chosen lifts her head up and stares into Presea's blank eyes. What happens next occurs too swiftly for everyone to recognize in time, as Presea suddenly draws out her axe and swerves her body around, swinging the sharpest part of her weapon against the ground to cleave it apart and force most of the group to leap back before they take the full brunt of her attack.

Genis, whose reaction was a little more delayed than the others, says in a stunned voice towards the girl "P-P-Presea…?" The girl had no response for the half-elf boy as she turns around and hits the wide-eyed Colette with a gentle swing of the blunt part of her axe. The Chosen is knocked unconscious, and after recovering from the attack Lloyd boldly exclaims to try and reason with the little girl "Presea, what do you think you're doing?!"

"Why, she is merely giving me exactly what I wanted her to retrieve." An arrogant, grainy and familiar voice beckons to the group from behind, and as Presea grabs Colette by the hair and drags her along the ground most of the group turns their heads to see the mysterious purple-haired man they saw at Presea's house earlier has reappeared.

Once Presea stands before the man, he takes his right hand out and rubs the top of her head as though she was his pet while complimenting her slowly "Good work, Presea…"

"You…" Lloyd growls at the man in anger, but the man turns towards the small hill off to the right of him while part his cape. Looking up towards the sky, one could see two blue and green scaled dragons with long, violet wings descending down upon Ozette. With one flap of their wings upon landing, they let loose a gale strong enough to keep Lloyd and most of the group in place while the man and Presea walk towards the dragons.

One dragon rises up and flies towards Colette while Sheena braces herself against the wind and exclaims "Damn it! Corrine, stop Presea!" Beckoning to the call, the little fox appears in a puff of smoke and runs against the dying gale after the pink-haired girl. With a mighty leap, Corrine uses all the might it could muster to hit Presea in the back and knock her out against the ground.

Regal runs up to Presea as Corrine disappears to check on her condition, and as the man gets onto the other dragon and takes off Regal glares up at him in anger. The man glares down upon the group in a condescending manner and introduces himself in the most nonchalant manner possible "I am Rodyle! The most cunning of the Desian Grand Cardinals! I hope you don't mind me taking the Chosen One. Hehehehe!"

As he wastes time laughing arrogantly, Riku pulls his right hand back and charges a fireball in the palm, yelling up towards Rodyle to grab his attention "I hope YOU don't mind if I disagree!" The Desian glances down at the boy as he thrusts his arm forward and launches a fireball so large that it bathes the area in a bright red glow. The fireball crashes against only the dragon Rodyle is riding, ensuring that Colette would be unharmed by the ensuing explosion.

However, since Lloyd doesn't know about this second part, he exclaims angrily at Riku "Are you trying to get Colette killed?!" But Lloyd's concerns and Riku's efforts are both wasted as the smoke quickly faded away with a flap of the dragon's wings, revealing that Rodyle was completely unharmed. A glimmering barrier around the dragon disappears out of sight, leading Riku to think to himself in shock _"No way…He couldn't have…"_

"Hmmm, so you DO have a lot of power at your disposal. Unfortunately, not even your power can deal with the cunning that I possess. Perhaps another time I will have a chance to dissect you and your powers, Elemental Overlord. Until then, I bid you farewell." Rodyle taunts Riku with the utmost precision in his words, and before Lloyd can run at him and leap in for the attack the Desian turned his dragons around and flew off towards the sky with Colette in his grasp.

Lloyd exclaims loudly towards the sky "COLETTE!" But when the dragons have become nothing more than a speck in the blue sky, the boy falls onto his knees and slams his right fist against the ground in flustered anger. Everyone can do nothing but stand around quietly and linger on the events that just occurred in front of them. Lloyd's eyes water as he appears to be on the verge of tears due to Colette's disappearance, but before he can even begin to cry Regal and Presea approach him from behind.

Regal picks his words wisely as he quietly mentions to Lloyd "…This probably isn't the best time Lloyd…But will you help Presea?" This reminder was enough to put Lloyd back on the straight and narrow, and he lifts his head up and slowly rises gets back onto his feet while saying to Regal "…Yeah. I've carved the charm. With this, she should return to her real self."

Lloyd takes out the charm he made and walks over to the motionless Presea. Using the utmost delicacy as he places the charm around her imperfect Key Crest, Lloyd then proceeds to back off and wait to see his work take effect. The first thing that changes on Presea's demeanor is that her pupils begin to reform on her eyes, and with it her body becomes a lot less stiff in an instant. Lloyd backs off, allowing Presea to let out a confused gasp of air and get a grasp on her surroundings.

Genis notices what Lloyd has done and enthusiastically runs up to check on the girl, asking her gently "P-Presea? Are you okay?" Presea frantically swerves her body around in confusion, taking a glance at everyone surrounding her before she asks "…What? What am I doing?" Her voice was filled with emotion befitting a girl her age, and she was frightened of what was going on.

After taking one last glance around the area, Presea asks a question that brings shivers and goosebumps to everyone involved "Where's my daddy?" Nobody says a word. How could anybody tell her the awful truth about what happened to her father? When ten seconds pass without an answer, Presea breaks away from the group and makes a mad dash towards her house. Everyone follows her shortly afterwards.

Inside the house, the group finds Presea standing beside the bed where her father's corpse has been. Her body is shivering, for she has no way to comprehend just why this corpse lied here in this rotten state. Her eyes welled up with tears as Regal slowly approached her from behind to be there for comfort, but with a mixture of sadness and confusion plaguing her mind Presea can only stutter out "I…what have I been doing?"

And then, it all sets in simultaneously. The reality of what she had been doing under the influence of the Exsphere proves to be too much for Presea to bear, and with the last image of her well and healthy father sinking into her eyes the girl collapses onto her knees and rears her head back, the tears coming out full force as she lets out a pale, hellish shriek from her agape mouth. Though the sound was loud, Regal stood by Presea and did not flinch, bearing the brunt of her shriek in his ears even though it pained his heart to do so.

When Presea was done, nobody said a word. Not even Zelos tried to lighten the mood with a joke. How could he when faced with something like this? The silence between everyone lasted for thirty seconds, and it was then that Presea weakly rose to her feet and said with a trembling lip "I…I have to give my d-d-daddy a p-p-proper resting place…" She pulled back the sheet covering the corpse slowly and reached for the rotting body, but with her sadness having drained the strength from her body she couldn't make it budge an inch.

Regal takes the helm at that point, as he puts his shackled arms underneath the corpse and lifts it up despite how the rotting juices continuously leaked down onto his skin. He gives a nod towards Presea to show that he will do everything he can to help, and the girl takes the lead to ensure that things were done right for her father. Regal follows Presea out of the house, the group standing aside to let them pass before joining them outdoors.

Presea points to a patch of ground a fair distance away from the house, and Regal nods his head in understanding. He agrees to hold onto the corpse until the grave was properly prepared. From that point onward, nobody said another word while they worked to bury Presea's father properly. Genis, Raine and Zelos help bring out a stone slab for Presea, who carves a message into the front of it with a dagger in her front pocket.

Lloyd uses a shovel to dig a hole into the ground big enough for the corpse, while Riku uses his sword to cut up a rectangular divot large enough to hold the slab perfectly, and Sheena performs a blessing ritual with a couple seals on the land surrounding the grave. When the hole is fully dug, Regal carefully puts the corpses inside, allowing Lloyd to cover it up with a mound of dirt. Zelos then brings the carved slab into the divot while Presea wanders back into her house to grab a couple more items. During that time, Riku uses his powers to create a lotus that he places at the very top of the slab.

She comes out with a long-handled axe and a pole of wood. It was easy to tell that the axe was her father's, and it had been amazingly preserved after all these years. Presea sticks the wood into the center of the dirt mound and then props the axe up diagonally in front of it. Presea then turns around and walks away from the grave, turning back to face it and staring at it with disbelief still prominent in her eyes.

She didn't have anymore tears to shed at this point, and any words she wished to say had already been carved into the slab below her feet. For the next two minutes, Presea just stares at the grave, and no one says anything until she's done. The girl then turns around and looks at everyone, saying in a subdued and appreciative tone of voice "…Thank you for assisting me with my daddy's burial."

Raine asks gently "Have you calmed down a little?" Presea nods her head and then looks at the group, saying to them slowly "I've…been a great burden on you all." Lloyd is surprised to hear this from her and asks "You remember?"

Presea is saddened to admit "Yes…mostly…" She hangs her head a little in shame, but brings it back up as Genis inquires "Why did you have an Exsphere like that on you anyways?"

Presea answers "I received it from a person named Vharley" Which immediately grabs Regal's attention and makes him state in a sickened tone "I knew it…Vharley!"

"I wanted to save my sick daddy. I wanted to learn how to wield an axe, so I could work in my daddy's place. So Vharley introduced me to Rodyle, and I was taken to the Research Academy in Sybak." Presea's explanation pieces together most of the information gathered so far in Zelos' head, which leads to him saying "The experiments on you were carried out by order of the Pope, right?"

In turn, Lloyd proclaims "So that Desian IS in league with Pope!" While this was a matter that would need to be addressed eventually, Regal took initiative and asked Presea "Perchance, do you happen to have an older sister?" Presea shakes her head in response, which puzzles the man in shackles.

Raine asks afterwards "Do you have any other family?" Presea recalls in a quiet tone "I have a younger sister. She left to go into service for a noble and that was the last I saw of her. And my mommy died when I was a child."

Zelos lightly reminds Presea "When you were a child? Hehe, you're still a child now." This reminder makes Presea feel awkward, because in spite of how long it had been since she had free will her body had not aged a day. "Oh…yes, of course…that's right…" She solemnly stares at the ground as she whispers that out.

"At any rate, we can't just leave you here in this village by yourself if you have no one to turn to." Sheena points out. Raine adds on to that by stating "Yes, the people of this village seem to avoid her."

Presea perks her head up and says in a nervous tone to the group "I…uh…I'd like to go with all of you if that would be all right." Lloyd asks in a puzzled tone "Huh? Why?"

"…It's my fault that Colette was taken away. So please, let me help in her rescue." Presea explains. While Lloyd takes her words into consideration, Regal says to him "Please allow me to come along as well. It seems that my fate is linked to your enemy."

Lloyd knew he couldn't make such an important decision on his own and turned towards his friends, asking them "Is this okay with everyone else?"

Sheena enthusiastically states "Hey, we've come all this way together. Do you even need to ask at this point?" "Exactly." Zelos adds on.

"I want to help Presea get revenge on the man who ruined her life. No objections from me Lloyd." Genis says. Raine pauses for a bit on the reckless idea, but says nonetheless "…Truthfully, I'd like to oppose this, but I already knew it would end up like this."

Riku gestures at Lloyd and says to him "You already know the vow I made Lloyd. I'll go along with any crazy plan you come up with. My blade is yours."

Lloyd then glances back at Presea and Regal and says to them "Then it's settled. You're welcome to help us out."

Presea enthusiastically proclaims "I will!" While Regal comments "Thank you. I'm in your debt. I shall not betray your trust." Raine then glances off to the side at Lloyd and says "Now let's hurry and find Colette."

Lloyd nods his head in agreement, and after looking up at the sky and thinking about how everything unfolded just minutes ago he points up and says "All right, they headed east."

"…Hmm, so you've lost the Chosen." A familiar voice calls out to the group from behind, causing them all to turn around and see Kratos standing just a few feet away in his usual stance. Lloyd's expression goes from stoic to angered as he runs to the front of the group, with Kratos stepping forward a bit to meet the boy's furious glance.

"You again! What have you done with Colette?!" Lloyd accuses bitterly. But Kratos remains calm and explains to Lloyd "Rodyle is ignoring our orders and acting on his own. I know nothing of it."

Considering the views the group has had on the Desians and Cruxis, Raine is swift to point out to Kratos "Internal strife? How pathetic." Her words were cold and sharp, but Kratos was barely fazed by them as he said "Say what you will. Either way, Rodyle will have no choice but to abandon the Chosen."

"What do you mean?!" Lloyd demandingly asks. "The Chosen is useless as she is now. You can let her be." Kratos' words come off as insulting to Lloyd, and the boy begins to reach for the handle of one of his swords while firmly stating to the man standing before him "You've got to be kidding me! We're going to rescue Colette no matter what! And if you get in our way…"

Lloyd runs at Kratos and draws out his right-handed sword to take a slash at the man. Kratos notices a change in Lloyd's speed and pulls out his sword faster to counteract it, and after parrying the blow aside with minimal effort Kratos keeps up his momentum and turns his body all the way around so his back now faces the unsheathed Lloyd. But Kratos did not come looking for a fight, and he quickly sheathes his sword and folds his arms against his chest while suggesting to Lloyd "…Then, I suggest you seek out the Rheairds and head for the eastern skies. I'm sure the people of Mizuho have located them by now."

Kratos then walks off, his words of advice deeply puzzling Lloyd as he stands there staring blankly at the departing warrior before stating "…What's that guy trying to do?"

Zelos butts in on Lloyd's mental predicament and says bluntly "Ah well, who cares? If he's useful, make use of him." As much as it pained her to admit it, Sheena said "I agree. Anyways, let's head back to Mizuho for now."

But before they departed, Genis glanced at Presea and smiled, saying happily to her as she stared at him in a befuddled manner "Just to make it official, welcome to the group, Presea!" Presea nods her head and says in an appreciative manner "Thank you."

Zelos says to the girl in a suave yet cutesy voice "My cute little Presea, I'll protect you, okay?" Presea says to the man "Thank you, Zelos."

Zelos' bold vow flusters poor Genis, who's blushed expression combined with his relative awkwardness leaves him at a loss of words "Oh! Oh! I'll…I'll…" Before he can finish his sentence, Lloyd exclaims to the group "Come on, let's go!"

Most of the group takes note of Lloyd's desire to depart and begin to leave, while Genis glances at Presea and lets out a light whisper of "I'll protect you too…" Realizing that his words weren't heard, the half-elf boy curses out angrily "GRRR! Stupid, STUPID Lloyd!"

After Genis catches up with everyone else, they begin to head off to Mizuho. Along the way, Presea walks up beside Riku and asks him quietly "Ummm…Riku's your name, correct?" The boy glances down at the girl and replies with "Huh? What's up Presea?"

"That flower you put on my father's grave…What was it?" Presea's question leads to Riku answering quickly "It's a lotus, a flower native to my world."

Presea tilts her head and asks again "But why did you put it on my father's grave?" Riku explained to Presea in a rather simple manner "Well, it was the nicest flower I could think of putting there…Sorry if it offends you, but I'm not really familiar with the foliage around here."

"O-Oh no, I liked it. Thank you, really…But I have to ask, why?" When Presea asks the question again upon gently thanking him for the gift, Riku says to the girl "Oh, you want that type of answer. Ummm, truth be told, I can kind of relate to not having a family…"

"You lost your family as well?" Presea says in a subdued tone of surprise. "Well, I do have a brother back on my home world, but I never had a mother or a father…It's kind of complicated."

"…I see." Presea quietly states. "I can only imagine how painful it would be to lose the people who raised you for most of your life, even if I didn't have parents myself, I can understand that much." Riku explains himself to the girl, and she turns to look up at him to ask "I'm sorry, you're not making much sense…"

"Hehe…Yeah, I didn't exactly prepare to answer this type of question." Riku awkwardly admits before going on to say "Ok, how about this for a simpler answer? I put the lotus on your father's grave because I felt that was the right thing to do."

"That sounds better, thank you." Presea happily states, but then she looks forward and seems to have an inflective look in her eyes. Riku pays attention to her demeanor and thinks to himself _"Hmmm…Now that I've mentioned it, I kind of wonder how Mew is holding up, especially considering who's infesting his mind…" _

The group takes a straight path of Mizuho this time around, since the Papal Knights have already marked the village as a target. Once back in the village, Lloyd, Sheena, Genis and Presea enter the Chief's house to find out about the Rheairds while everyone else stands outside just in case the knights decided to show up at some point.

Lloyd approaches the kneeled Vice-Chief Tiga, who says in a gentle tone of surprise "Oh, Lloyd, good timing." Lloyd and his friends stand still as he asks "What is it?"

"We've located the Rheairds." Tiga's answer surprised the group, since as Genis points out "It's just like Kratos said."

Lloyd notes in a rather peeved tone "Why does he do things like that to help if he's our enemy?" Presea reassures Lloyd by stating "It doesn't matter…now we can save Colette."

Tiga swerves slightly to look at Sheena and mentions to her "Sheena, before you recover the Rheairds, I must give you a test." "Huh? A test, Vice-Chief?" Sheena asks respectfully.

Tiga nods his head and explains "Yes. Even if we recover the Rheairds, if Volt's mana runs out, they will crash again. Thus, before recovering the Rheairds, you are going to form a pact with Volt." Those last five words make Sheena's body freeze up in fright, and Tiga recognizes the stress on her body and reassures her "I know it's hard, but it is a test I know you can overcome."

Slowly backing away as her friends watch on, Sheena stutters out timidly "I…I…I can't!" In her fright, Sheena bolts right out of the house much to her friend's shock. Tiga groans out a sigh and closes his eyelids as he explains to the puzzled group "Sheena failed to form a pact with Volt once before."

Tiga gestures towards to the left, where the group turns and sees a man lying unconscious behind see-through olive curtains. "…The Chief was put into a coma because of those events…" Tiga says with the utmost respect for him. Knowing more about Sheena's past makes Lloyd say in empathetic quietness "Sheena…"

Lloyd, Genis and Presea exit the house, with Lloyd immediately wandering off to find where Sheena had gone off to. Before he gets too far though, Zelos stops him with a pat on the shoulder and says in a rather serious tone "It's a pretty famous incident. A quarter of Mizuho's population died. She puts on a strong face, but you've seen how alone she is in this village…Go cheer her up, man. You seem to be pretty good at that."

"Thanks Zelos…" Lloyd actually gained a little more respect for the Chosen of Tethe'alla after hearing that from him, and he walked off to find Sheena without any further disturbance from the others.

"To think that Sheena had a reason for hesitating with pacts in Sylvarant…" Genis comments in a saddened tone of voice. Riku sighs to himself afterwards, and while everyone was standing around dealing with their own business while they had a moment to rest the teenage Overlord walks after Lloyd to help comfort Sheena.

Riku finds Lloyd and Sheena near a few stone-headed statues in a secluded part of the village. Corrine was currently trying to comfort Sheena confidently "Don't worry! If it comes down to it, I'll save you! Just like you saved me a long time ago."

Sheena hangs her head low and says "I can't…" And when she hears Lloyd's footsteps the girl turns around and insists to him "I can't do it. You heard, didn't you? So many people died because I failed to make a pact with Volt."

"We heard. What about it?" Lloyd firmly states. Sheena expresses her concern towards him in a rather subdued manner "…So I may wind up killing you, too."

Lloyd shakes his head and confidently says to Sheena "We won't die." "….Why?" Sheena asks. Lloyd shows his absolute faith in the ninja's capabilities by saying then and there "Because you're going to succeed."

"How do you know that? I already failed once…" Sheena states, to which Lloyd reminds her quickly "And you've succeeded three other times. Sheena, remember Efreet, Undine and Sylph? You made pacts with them easily. You are not a bad summoner, you can handle Volt, I guarantee it."

Corrine adds on to Lloyd's confidence by proclaiming "Yeah Sheena! I'll help too!" Sheena's mood is lifted slightly, but she still feels the need to look Lloyd straight in the eyes and ask of him "Volt is different, he's a monster compared to all the other summons we faced so far…What are you going to do if he goes berserk again?"

Lloyd draws out one of his sword and performs one swift slash, saying firmly to Sheena "I'll cut him down myself. And that will be the end of that. Okay?"

"But that won't be necessary." Riku chimes in at that point and steps forward, looking at Sheena with a smile on his face as he mentions "So long as any of us stand by your side to give you support, you can be assured that Volt will be tamed by your hand."

"Corrine…Lloyd…Riku…" Sheena is warmed by the support her friends gave her, and with a little confident nod the ninja replies to their faith in her abilities by saying "…Alright. I'll try it."

Sheena, Lloyd and Riku walk back to the rest of the group, where Orochi has now shown up to deliver one last bit of info from the Vice-Chief. "Tiga has instructed me to meet you at the Temple of Lightning with the location of the Rheairds once you are done. Head north to find the temple, and I wish you all the best of luck."

With their job at Mizuho done, the group departs for the coast once more, where they use the EC to sail north, and with Sheena's guidance it doesn't take them very long to reach the deck in front of a large, moss covered stone spire that looks fittingly similar to an electric rod. Sheena looks up at the top of the tower and nervously swallows, but as she walks beside the rest of the group she tries to maintain a confident demeanor as she prepared to tackle her greatest fear…

_Next Time: The Hammer of Godly Lightning_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Volt**

Entering the Temple of Lightning, the group is greeted by a bright purple hue coming from the environment along with a straightforward ivory tiled path. Sheena twitches nervously in the face of this path as she recalls years ago when she entered here alongside many other of Mizuho's citizens.

A gaze over the side of the path reveals an endless chasm filled with dark purple and black fog that crackles occasionally with electricity. While Lloyd was in awe of the fog, he also noted something rather interesting about the temple "Huh, we got in easily…" He then pulls back from the side of the path and looks on ahead before commenting further "And I don't see an oracle stone anywhere…"

Raine notes to her puzzled student "This is the flourishing world. It probably isn't functioning as a seal right now." Lloyd looks at the professor and states "Well, that's good news for us."

He then glances over at Sheena and asks her "So Sheena, since you've been here before, can you tell us what we're up against?"

With the girl stuck in her own worried thoughts, it takes her a moment to glance over at Lloyd and says to him "Huh? O-Oh, right…Umm, truth be told Lloyd, I was seven when I came here before, and the elders mostly dealt with the puzzles at the time…I-I'm sorry, I don't remember much."

"…Sorry, I wasn't trying to force you to relive bad memories." Lloyd apologizes upon noticing Sheena's distress after he said that. "Don't worry about it Lloyd, I'll be fine, I promise." Sheena gives him her reassurance afterwards, and the group accepts that as an answer for now.

As they proceed down the pathway though, Corrine appears on the ground in front of Sheena and walks backwards while saying in a quiet and concerned tone "What's wrong Sheena? You're nervous, aren't you?"

Sinking her head in shame, Sheena replies to her friend "…Well, yeah, of course." Corrine leaps up and down and proclaims "Don't worry. If anything goes wrong, I'll protect you, okay?"

Sheena feels a tiny bit of appreciation towards the little fox's determination but nonetheless says "…I appreciate that, but I don't think…you have that kind of power. Or me, either, of course…"

Corrine leaps up in front of Sheena's face to make her heart skip a beat and grab her attention, and once on the ground the little fox says "You mustn't talk like that! I'm going to do my best, so you should too, okay?" Giving her friend a tiny nod, Sheena sighs and replies with "…Yeah."

After passing by a few electric gates that turn on and off, the group runs into a Sorcerer's Ring altar. Lloyd uses it to change the ring's function, and after remembering what almost happened in the mines he holds the ring forward before activating it. A pulse of blue lightning comes out a few feet in front of Lloyd before it vanishes, causing Lloyd to comment "Huh, so it's like the normal Sorcerer's Ring, but with lightning."

This event brings a few memories back to Sheena's mind. She recalls watching as the Chief of Mizuho took his Sorcerer's Ring and showed off it's effects to the young ninja with a warm smile on his face. During that time Kuchinawa was with her, and while both were fascinated as little children rightfully should be they kept a dutiful expression on their faces.

After this memory faded away, Sheena said to Lloyd "I remembered something Lloyd. With the ring the way it is now, you can destroy blue blocks of concentrated mana in this temple."

Riku comments afterwards "I really have to wonder why there are so many objects composed of mana on this planet." To which Raine replies with a hypothesis as they move further through the temple "Considering Tethe'alla has been flourishing for a while now, it would make sense if the excess of mana took on a composite form to ensure that this event isn't reversed."

"I guess that's possible, or it could be that someone doesn't want us to make it to the Summon Spirits." Riku says in turn, leading to Raine turning away from the boy and murmuring to herself curiously.

After going back and climbing a staircase, the group exits the foggy entrance and ends up in the main part of the temple itself. The hue of light vanished and was replaced with a dark pale atmosphere. The temple was split into two floors that could be reached easily with a staircase on either side of the room, and as Sheena looked up towards the second floor she noticed a familiar conductor poking slightly past the edge of the platform.

"…Hmm…" Sheena pauses for a moment and recalls the past again, this time remembering the first time she entered this particular room with the Chief and a couple Mizuho escorts. Her young self stared up at the top of the Temple of Lightning, and the Chief said to her in his usual voice of wisdom _"Up there is Volt's Summon Seal. Sheena, are you ready?" _

Sheena remembers nodding her head in the past, but in the present she pondered whether saying no would've made any difference. "I guess I felt I couldn't disappoint the Chief because he took me in and raised me…But even then I…" The girl is left in her thoughts for a few seconds in the center of the room before Zelos yodels at her "Yoo-hoo! Hey Sheena, we're already heading to the second floor, come on!"

The ninja glances over at the left staircase to see the group ascending with Zelos hanging back to grab her attention. "Right, sorry guys!" Sheena apologizes and runs to catch up, leading to Zelos turning back around with a concerned look in his eyes before he continues moving.

At the top of the staircase, the group comes across a polycarbonate seal with three different colored blocks holding up a conductor at the center of it. "So this is Volt's seal…Fascinating!" Raine smiles brightly and her eyes light up as she runs past the rest of the group and heads to the other side of the seal, kneeling down and scanning up and down to see how everything looked.

"Even with the difference in mana output the seal still has the same structure as the ones in Sylvarant…And there appears to be a different summoning method for Volt compared to the other three. There is so much to see here, like how-" As Raine babbles on by herself, Lloyd steps in front of the seal and notices a blue block on the bottom, which he makes disappear with a use of the Sorcerer's Ring.

This is followed by a distressed cry from Raine, who immediately stands up and runs at Lloyd, exclaiming with arms pressed against her chest and her face right up in Lloyd's own. "Why did you do that Lloyd?! I may never get a chance to examine a block like that again!"

Lloyd surprisingly handles Raine's mania calmly, saying to her "Relax professor. There's three different colored blocks in this temple, so I imagine we'll have to change the Sorcerer's Ring to deal with the other two. And we'll probably find more blue blocks along the way."

The entire group is flabbergasted by everything Lloyd just said, with Genis commenting in a deadpan manner "L-Lloyd said something smart and reasonable."

"Shut up Genis." Lloyd turns his head to say that to his friend, while beside him Raine lets out a proud sniffle and states to Lloyd "You're actually paying attention Lloyd…I'm so happy to hear that!"

Raine was broken out of her mania thanks to this, but the group had become a little distracted by their task. Regal lets out a gentle cough and says to everyone else "You can be proud of him later Raine. Lloyd brings up a good point, we need to find out how to deal with the other two blocks."

Lloyd turns around and asks Sheena "Have you remembered anything else that can help?" The ninja was in the middle of staring at the seal, which causes yet more memories to surface bit by bit. Now Sheena recalled the moment where the Chief calls forth two Mizuho ninjas, both of whom wore Sorcerer Rings on their right hands. _"Remove the blocks and the seal will connect to the device, giving it the mana necessary to call forth Volt."_

The two Mizuho ninjas and the Chief use their electricity simultaneously to remove the blocks, and the conductor slowly falls before the young Sheena's eyes as she stands in front of the seal. The Chief turns towards Sheena and says to herself in an encouraging manner _"Sheena, Volt shall soon arrive. Your training has led up to this moment."_

Sheena snaps out of her memories and replies to Lloyd with "I'm sorry, but someone else handled the other two blocks. I don't know the inner workings of this temple. It shouldn't be too difficult though."

"Then lets get a move on." Lloyd says. The group heads back down the staircase to try and figure out where the yellow lightning altar is, since that was the next block they need to deal with. While they went through the temple, Zelos walked up between Genis and Lloyd and listened in on their conversation. "I wonder if Sheena's okay." Genis whispered in concern, which leads to Lloyd commenting "…We have to believe in her. If we don't, who will?"

Zelos gets a little laugh out of their conversation and interjects with a word of his own "Ah, what beautiful mutual trust." Lloyd immediately glares at the man and exclaims "Stop making a joke out of it!"

"Whoa, take it easy Lloyd. Just think for a moment here, if I were the one that was about to make that pact now, even Lloyd wouldn't be able to freely put all his trust in me, right?" Zelos quietly explains. Genis shrugs his shoulders and says "No kidding."

Zelos brushes the side of Genis' face and says in quiet anger "The brat can shut up, thank you." He then turns towards Lloyd and says to him "So anyway, I was just thinking how you have a beautiful mutual trust born of the time you've spent together."

Lloyd points out "Sheena's our partner. Of course we trust her." He then glances at Zelos and says straight up to him "…And so are you, after all. I trust you, too." This remark makes the man close his eyelids partway and tilt his head while murmuring "…Hmmm." To himself.

Continuing on through dark passages illuminated only by the brief flashes of lightning, the group also eliminates any monster that stands in their way until they make it to the second altar. They give the ring the ability to shoot yellow lightning and then make their way back to the seal to deal with the next block.

Along the way, Riku walks up to Sheena and asks her "Sheena, how are you holding up so far?" The ninja glances at the boy and replies with "I-I'm fine…Mostly." The little lack of confidence at the end of her sentence made the teenage Overlord feel curious.

"What do you mean by that?" Riku asks to gain further information. Sheena says in response "I thought I'd hate being in the Temple of Lightning again, but…"

"You only hate being in Volt's room." Riku figures out the girl's problem after a little more information, which causes Sheena to quietly say to him as she turns her head "Y-Yeah."

"Well that's understandable. Seeing that room sets off traumatic memories." Riku says. Sheena nods her head rather hesitantly in agreement, leading to her then asking the teenage Overlord "…Say Riku, have you ever had a traumatic experience in your life?"

"…" Riku hangs his head a bit and quietly replies "Yeah, once. But that won't affect our journey, not unless Lloyd or Zelos started running around with a green cap on their heads."

"Heh, that sounds like something Zelos would do." Sheena lightens up a bit and laughs at the thought Riku put in her head. The teenage Overlord then says to Sheena cheerfully "…Once we've dealt with Volt, I look forward to seeing you go back to your energetic self."

The group makes it back to the seal and use the yellow lightning to destroy the block, leaving only the red one in it's wake. But before they depart, Lloyd brings up a rather good question "Why can't we just touch the device from here?"

"Because the device has to connect to the seal to summon Volt. The blocks provide insufficient mana." Sheena explains based on her past memories. "Oh…" Lloyd was kind of bummed out since he was starting to get bored with traversing the temple.

But even so, Lloyd didn't make any noise regarding his boredom and continued on with the rest of the group to find the red lightning altar. More dark passages, a puzzle involving a large lightning rod, and a few destroyed rocks later the group manages to find the altar they need. On the way back to what would be their destined confrontation with Volt, Zelos walks beside Sheena and gets into a conversation with her.

"So it's almost time to make a pact with Volt. You ready for this my voluptuous darling?" Zelos puts on his charm in front of the girl like he usual does, which only causes her irritation as she crumples her forehead and says "I'd prefer it if you didn't say anything."

"I'm just trying to make small talk Sheena. You know, ease a little tension." Zelos tries to state his intentions honestly, but Sheena points out "You aren't doing a very good job…"

"Yeah, I know. I'm not exactly used to holding a conversation like this." Zelos says, leading to Sheena looking at him in a curious manner before he says "You know how hard it is to forget these beautiful looks and dashing figure exists and just talk to someone as a friend? I consider many women my hunnies, but you're the only one I consider to be my friend."

"…That's one of the nicest things you've ever said to me." Sheena states after taking a surprised pause. Zelos smiles and shrugs before joking "What can I say, lightning never strikes the same place twice."

Sheena nudges Zelos in the gut for his misplaced metaphor, but keeps a half-smile on her face and uses little force in her nudge. Sheena had her spirits lifted slightly by that effort, which carried over as she entered Volt's chamber and ascended the stairs to the seal for the last time. Lloyd uses the ring to destroy the red block, which causes the conductor to fall straight onto the center of the seal. All that was needed was a press of the button to activate the device, and Volt would be summoned forth.

Lloyd looks at Sheena and asks her "Are you ready?" The ninja pauses for a moment and looks around her. Everyone was looking at her expectantly, but no one said a word. Sheena looks at the seal and nods her head. Lloyd backs off to stand around with the rest of the group, leaving Sheena to activate the device on her own.

Sheena takes two steps forward and with her right hand shivering she presses the button into the device, causing a sharp crystal rod to thrust out from the top. Immediately upon backing off, Sheena and the group watch as the rod is struck by a flash of purple lightning, which warps around into a glowing vortex of electricity with a vague spherical hue that can barely contain the might of the vortex.

The vortex spins for a few seconds before expanding outward in a massive burst of red energy that sends forth a static-y gale, and in a second the temple is robbed of most light. All that remains in the temple is the brightened outline of the group and the haunting red eyes poking through the darkness. The eyes open with a sparking yellow glow that represents the pupils, and the light is then cast back into the temple as a large sphere of purple electricity that can barely contain it's own energy.

Gazing their eyes upon Volt in awe, only Riku has a physical reaction to the Summon Spirit's presence as a sharp tinge nicks the front of his chest and makes him clench his right fist against it and tremble slightly before he comments in his head _"He has it…That's definitely my Lightning element…" _

Sheena stands at edge of the seal and stares up at Volt. Seeing him against after twelve years immediately reminded her of their first encounter, and though she was older the Summon Spirit was as imposing as it was back then. Nervousness arises even further as past and present meet and Volt starts to speak to her in a very distorted dialect that sounded similar to a robot beeping. The language was unfamiliar to Sheena, and in a panic she says "…It's just like before! What the hell is he saying?!"

Volt stares down in disappointment at the girl before her, and as Sheena starts to recall what happened the last time she failed to translate the Spirit's words she's swiftly snapped out of it by Raine's words "Sheena, calm down. I'll translate."

The professor, who had analyzed the words spoken in a language that was familiar only to her, tried her best to restate what Volt had just said "I am one who is bound to Mithos. Who are you?"

Lloyd comments "Mithos again? How could he make pacts with Summons Spirits in both Tethe'alla and Sylvarant?" Genis answers with his own theory "Hmm, yeah. Maybe Mithos went back and forth between the worlds with a Rheaird as well."

While those two talked, Sheena gained a little more confidence in herself and exclaimed to Volt "I am Sheena! I ask that though annulst thy pact with Mithos and establish a new pact with me."

Volt speaks again, and Raine translates anew "He says that his pact with Mithos is broken. But he no longer desires a pact." This revelation sends a sharp pain of shock through Sheena's chest, and she turns back at Raine and proclaims "Why?!"

Volt answers, and through Raine Sheena learns "I will have no more dealings with people, therefore I desire no pact."

"W-What?! N-N-No! We didn't come all this way for nothing! We need your help!" Sheena draws out multiple seals, her body trembling in fright as she stares up at Volt.

Another sharp tinge pulses through Riku's heart, and simultaneously with Lloyd they proclaim "Sheena! Be careful!"

Volt rises up slightly and draws in his own electricity, launching forth a ring of energy before he blasts the area around his seal with hard bolts of purple lightning. All who can draw out their swords do so to protect themselves from the brunt of the attack, but everyone is nonetheless struck with a lightning bolt and launched straight off the second floor of the temple. Genis, Presea and Regal are thrown against the wall, a sharp thrust of pain knocking them all unconscious against the ground, while Raine barely manages to save herself by casting First Aid on herself right as she lands. Lloyd, Zelos and Riku end up on their knees with barely any consciousness while Sheena falls onto her back atop the staircase on the first floor.

"Sheena!" Lloyd exclaims as he tries to push himself onto his feet, only for the pain in his legs to prevent him from rising. Sheena hears Lloyd's cry, but she lies on her back with eyes wide open and her mouth slightly agape, her body barely able to move.

As she lies there, another echo from the past returns to her mind, this time coming from her younger self _"Chief, the pact isn't working!" _Her words are followed up with the Chief saying _"Volt isn't responding?! Impossible…" _

The distress of the elder is followed by Sheena flashing forward through multiple events that occurred in a row, with Volt going on a rampage through his own temple, killing nearly all in his path. Sheena recalls the carnage in vivid detail, with Kuchinawa's parents being scorched alive and the Chief being thrust into a coma because he tried so hard to fend Volt off due to Sheena's mistake.

Every last scream was embedded inside of her head, making her whimper out to herself in the present "W-Why…? W-What's the point? …H-He can't be tamed…"

Sheena tries to lift herself upright almost like a zombie would, her eyes blank with fright as a purple, electric glow descends from above. Volt was coming from his seal to finish what he started, and as the girl stares into his emotionless eyes her own eyes began to trickle with tears as her voice began to break down into a frightened mumble "No…No…No no no. It's going to happen again…Everyone is going to die…I've learned nothing as a summoner…"

Lloyd tries to break through Sheena's broken state with desperate words "Sheena! Get up! We know you can do it still! Believe in yourself!" But the girl only weakly rose to her feet and clasped the sides of her head as the painful memories played over and over again, all of them drowned out by Volt's alien-like voice in a matter of seconds.

"LLOYD, ALL OF YOU, JUST RUN! HE CAN'T BE STOPPED!" Sheena's piercing cry is all that she muster. The safety of her friends meant more to her than her own life, which was soon to be over as Volt began to summon forth electricity from the front of his body to fry Sheena for her transgressions.

Riku wobbles forward, thinking to himself _"I can stop him…All I need to do is leap forward and stop his attack…And then Sheena will be…" _As selfless as his thoughts were, the teenage Overlord froze himself in place and glanced off to the side in shame, reminding himself that there would be no point to him defending Sheena from Volt's attack.

There was only one way that the group was going to handle Volt, and as much as Riku didn't want the act to occur…He chose to kneel there and let it unfold outside his range of vision. As Volt launched his attack, a familiar puff of smoke appeared beside Sheena's legs and leaped forth into the air. The figure and the projectile of blue lightning collide, and the figure is electrocuted for seven seconds with enough voltage to kill even the strongest of humans…But for the sake of his friend, Corrine let every second pass, even as Sheena's tears broke away and left her staring in silent disbelief at the sacrifice being performed before her very eyes.

The electricity snaps off of Corrine's body, and the little fox falls to the ground with smoke seeping out his fur. Sheena runs forward with little control over her body and kneels down before the fox, picking him up with both of her hands and holding him close to her face as her eyes wobble in sadness. "Corrine! Corrine!" Sheena proclaims the fox's name desperately in hopes of getting a response, but at first nothing comes out.

Tears begin to form again from Sheena's eyes as she nuzzles the fox against her chest and asks "Why?!" Her words come out painfully, but Volt cares nothing about those emotions. The Summon Spirit prepares to annihilate the girl with another bolt of lightning formed from the front of it's body. Sheena knew nothing about the attack as she coddled Corrine's scorched body in her arms, but as the flash of lightning erupts from Volt Lloyd stands up in spite of the pain in his legs and runs up the staircase, getting between the Summon Spirit just in time to draw one of his swords and deflect the purple lightning towards a wall to the right.

With the strength he had, Lloyd glances back at Sheena and exclaims urgently "Sheena! Get ahold of yourself!" While the swordsman was distracted by this, Volt fired off another lightning bolt that hit Lloyd square in the chest, sending him flying back down the staircase and leaving Sheena vulnerable to another attack.

But this time, Zelos leaps in as the bolt goes off, and with his shield at the front he exclaims "Guardian!" and summons forth a shield of green energy to block Volt's lightning. He then uses his other arm to grab Sheena around the stomach and leap out of the way, placing her safe out of harm's way against a wall before saying to her smoothly "Sheena, leave this to us for now!"

Zelos then flips back around and charges at Volt while Lloyd and Riku get on their feet and join him. Sheena looks at her friends charging into battle and exclaims in frightened disbelief "No! STOP!" Her voice became almost raspy as she tried to stop her friend's from throwing their life away.

As she sits there crying, a meek voice calls to her from below. "Sheena…" Sheena looks down to see Corrine turning his little head slightly upward to look at his friend, and after coughing out a little puff of smoke he says "Volt's…just lost his faith in people…Make your…vow…and try forming a pact one more time…You can do it, Sheena!"

"C-Corrine!" Speaking through the sadness welling in her heart, Sheena listens to the little fox as he says in the most apologetic tone he could muster "I'm sorry…that I couldn't be of more help…" Corrine's body becomes engulfed in a veil of hazy blue light, his body fading apart in a series of rising wisps as Sheena desperately begs her friend "No! NO! Not you Corrine…I don't want you to die too! Corrine…I…I…"

Sheena leans her head forward and begins to cry once more, her eyelids sealed as she whimpers tearfully. As the feeling of Corrine's fur began to leave her fingertips, the girl is greeted by another memory from the past…

"_W-What is this?" A few years ago, Sheena recalls herself in the basement of the Elemental Research Laboratory, asking a question of one of the scientists as she stands before a glass orb where the newborn Corrine viciously barks at the glass. _

"_That is the first ever man-made Summon Spirit." One of the scientists replies as he writes down some data on the fox recorded from an analyzing device that rotates around the orb. _

"_A S-S-Summon Spirit?" Sheena asks. "Yes. We managed to do this based on what little data was recovered during your attempt to pact with Volt long ago. Isn't it a fascinating little creature?" _

_Sheena holds one hand out at the glass, but the fox snarls at her aggressively to force her back. Sheena asks of the man "D-Does he have a name?" "A name? Hmmm, we haven't quite managed to give him one yet. Normally a Summon Spirit names itself, but the creature doesn't appear to be capable of human speech."_

"_Just like Volt…" Sheena notes the similarity in a melancholy tone, and glares at the fox in a somewhat pitying manner. Later that night, Sheena returned to the lab and set the fox free, feeling as though it was being mistreated in that glass cage. The fox didn't bark at her as she left him outside of Meltokio to run free, but instead it trotted close behind her almost like a pet would._

_Sheena was naturally puzzled by this action, and upon remembering what the scientist had said she kneeled down and asked the fox "What is your name?" The fox smiled for the first time ever and proclaimed cheerfully "Corrine!" _

_From the on, Sheena remembers how Corrine would always be by her side through every missions she undertook, sleeping next to her at the thick of night and traveling beside her in the brightness of day. The fox had no complaints to share so long as Sheena was the only one acknowledging him. _

_Sheena next recalls the day that the two went to the Meltokio festival, where the two were able to relax after an incredibly difficult mission. It was there that Sheena purchased Corrine's little bell, and the fox smiled and treasured it like he never had anything else. When the bell was placed around his neck, Corrine said to her "Thank you, Sheena! I will treasure this and your kindness, forever…forever…forever…"_

The end of Corrine's promise echoed in Sheena's mind in the present as Corrine's body faded away completely, and all she could hear in that instant was a bell ringing as it landed on her left hand. For the next three seconds, Sheena cried to herself as she lifted the bell close to her face.

Her sadness is disrupted by a loud crash that jolts her head up to see Lloyd being slammed against a wall thanks to another of Volt's vicious attacks. The boy plants one sword against the ground as he lands and glares up at the Summon Spirit, who was simultaneously holding off both Riku and Zelos' swords with a thick field of electricity.

Lloyd notices Sheena beside him and upon seeing the bell in her hands he proclaims "Sheena! You have to subdue Volt by force! Don't let Corrine's effort go to waste! Otherwise, you'll spend the rest of your life haunted by Volt's shadow!" With renewed vigor, Lloyd plants the tips of his swords against the ground and drags them along as he runs back at Volt, yelling energetically as he leaps up and performs a double-arced slash on the Summon Spirit's face.

Sheena watches Lloyd, Zelos and Riku valiantly fight on even though the beast was overpowering their attacks. She stared for a few seconds while lowering her hands, thinking to herself after what Lloyd just said to her _"…It's always been about Volt…"_

"_I was never frightened by the Temple of Lightning and I didn't freeze up when pacting with the Sylvaranti Summon Spirits…All this time, all of my problems stemmed from Volt himself. His name, his appearance, his presence in my memories…Lloyd's right…Corrine's right…Volt will always be weighing me down, making those around me suffer or die, all because I've never tried to face him directly. I've always been running away…"_

Encouraging herself with those words in her mind, Sheena wipes away the tears in her eyes with one sleeve and starts to rise back onto her feet. After she was completely upright, the girl takes Corrine's bell and wraps it around her right wrist without looking at it, having faith in her capability to do so. As the bells rings with her movements, Sheena opens her eyelids and glares over at Volt while reaching into her clothes to pull out a red paper seal, whispering out to her fallen friend "Corrine…Watch over me."

Volt summons forth a series of lightning bolts around his body to push Zelos, Riku and Lloyd away. Riku comments as he holds his sword behind himself "I can't believe he's putting up this much of a fight!" Lloyd weakly lowers his arms and leans forward, letting out a couple gasps of air before saying "Sheena wasn't exaggerating…But I won't back down! None of us will!"

The frenzied Summon Spirit widens it's eyes and summons forth three orbs of electricity across it's body, each one aimed at the warriors surrounding him. He was prepared to unleash one of his strongest attacks capable of rending even the ground to nothing, but before he could get a chance to fire off his barrage a red blur collides with his body and sends him crashing into the wall behind. The force behind the impact covered the one responsible in dust for but a few seconds.

When the dust faded, a large red creature with a serpentine molten tail, muscular frame, scorched wings, glowing azure gauntlets and two sharp horns can be seen pressing Volt against the newly formed indent in the wall with it's searing three-fingered right claw. Volt's body frizzled as it spoke cryptically, but the red creature merely looked at the Summon Spirit and said in a deep voice "Forgive me brother, but I am merely responding to the wishes of the one who formed a pact with me."

The three warriors glance over their shoulders, with Zelos cracking a proud smile as he sees Sheena standing confidently at the top of the staircase, her head held high as she glares at Volt with all of her ferocity and proclaims at the top of her lungs "For the sake of everyone that risked their lives to protect me…Volt! I DEMAND YOUR POWER!" Hatred and fear born from the last twelve years of suffering erupts from Sheena's mouth, leaving everyone who can hear her absolutely speechless.

"…Heh, I think we've overstayed our welcome now. Come on you two, let's let Sheena do her thing." Zelos calmly stands up and sheathes his blade, directing his remark at both Riku and Lloyd as he walks away from the field of battle. The teenage Overlord looks at Lloyd and the two nod in agreement, but before they depart Lloyd says to Sheena "You can do it, Sheena. We all believe in you."

Sheena closes her eyelids and cracks a smile, saying quietly to the boy "…Thank you Lloyd." When Lloyd has left her line of sight, Sheena opens her eyelids back up and proclaims to the red beast "Efreet, release your grip on Volt and return to me!"

"If that is your wish." Efreet loosens his grip on Volt's spherical body and flies back through the air, allowing Volt to pull himself away from the indent and glare down at Sheena, surprised at the fact that the girl managed to pact with one of his brethren.

Volt quickly goes back on the offensive and summons forth a ring of electricity underneath Sheena's body that gives off a pale violet light across the room. Lightning erupts from the sky down upon Sheena, but the girl merely keeps her cool and draws out five seals that encircle her body and surround her in a field of green light that redirects the lightning and makes it crash harmlessly on the ground around her.

During this time, she commands of the Summon Spirit of Fire "Inferno Limited!" Efreet flies forth and slams the very tips of it's talons against the ground, puncturing it and creating a magic circle beneath Volt's body that quickly erupts into a pyre of fire that engulfs him completely. As the Guardian Seal fades away, Sheena pulls one of the seals away from the ring and throws it casually at Volt. The seal is placed on the creature's body but only lasts a few seconds before it detonates in the form of a fiery orb and pushes the Summon Spirit back a few feet.

Volt begins speaking again, this time in a more frantic manner before his voice is silenced by a straight punch of fire to the face by Efreet. Sheena then runs along the ground to position herself behind the Summon Spirit while pulling out multiple seals that she scatters about along the ground. During this time Efreet pulls his fist back, revealing that he managed to crack apart the front of Volt's face with that single blow.

In retaliation, Volt releases a large excess of electricity upon Efreet, using approximately one million volts to ensure that his brother would be scorched to the muscle by his attack. But with his gauntlets acting in defense Efreet absorbs most of the electricity. Sheena calls away Efreet with a simple proclamation of "Disperse, Efreet!" The creature humbly bows it's head and disappears in a visage of flames while the ninja leaps over Volt's body, risking her life as the creature summons forth a field of electricity around itself in order to fling two seals on precisely on the center of it's head.

As Sheena lands gracefully on the ground with one hand acting as support, Volt is met with two simultaneously explosions that send him crashing down into the ground. The ninja turns around and reaches into her body to pull out a blue seal, staring straight into Volt's glowing eyes as the creature draws in electricity from everywhere it can imagine, surrounding itself with a field so thick that the hairs on everyone's skin begin to pull up against their will.

But even though Sheena's skin tingled in Volt's presence, she had now put the Summon Spirit right where she wanted him to be. Underneath Volt's body now sat the seals Sheena placed on the ground just moments ago, and with a snap of her left fingers the seals activate all at once to create a massive spherical wind vacuum that encages Volt with all of his built-up electricity.

With the blue seal in hand, Sheena says the necessary incantation to summon forth the majestic Undine behind her. The Summon Spirit of Water raises her hands into the air, and in mere seconds a cylindrical torrent of water gushes down above Volt's body. Trapped with no where to go, Volt feels the pain of it's own element turned against him as the water converts his electricity into a series of miniature explosions that consume him thoroughly.

Volt's words become a jumbled mess as his body gyrates within the cyclone cage, his eyes widening in pain as Sheena calmly dispels Undine and lets the water shrink into a simple tinkle. Volt floats in the air, his body barely generating a spark as he slowly descends towards the ground, weakened beyond all belief. Sheena looks at Volt's pitiful state and starts to reach into her clothes to pull out another seal with the intent to kill the Summon Spirit for good, but before she can do so she feels a sudden feeling of relief washing through her mind and soul.

Taking in a breathe of air through her nostrils, Sheena finds herself relaxed and pulls her hand back out, the ring of the bell on her wrist leading her to think _"…Corrine…I did it." _Sheena then looks back at Volt and takes a couple steps back, as the creature weakly speaks to her.

Raine, who had spent most of the battle healing up the unconscious members of the group, walks to the bottom of the stairs and says to Sheena "Volt says, 'Make your vow'."

Hearing those words translated from the voice of the one who troubled her so made Sheena crack a gentle smile as she looked at Volt and said to him confidently "Just like I said, for the sake of everyone that risk their lives to protect me, and for Corrine's sake as well…I want to save both worlds..."

Volt relaxes itself and slowly closes it's eyes before speaking, as though Sheena's words calmed the turmoil in it's heart. "The vow has been made. I trust my power to the pact-maker, Sheena!" Raine translates.

As Volt rises up into the air, a flash of light fills the room, and suddenly Undine appears all on her own beside the Summon Spirit of Lightning. "A link between the two worlds has been severed…" Undine speaks in an elderly yet graceful tone.

Volt follows up on Undine's words with more of his own, to which Raine translates as "The two opposing forces of mana were…severed just now?"

Regal, who had just gotten back up and listened in on the conversation, asks of Undine "What does it mean for the mana flow to be severed?"

Undine explains slowly to the group "Mana flows from the world in which the Summon Spirits sleep to the world in the which the Summon Spirits are awake. This is the first time the Summon Spirits have been awakened in both worlds at the same time. Because of this, the mana connecting the two worlds has been eliminated."

Lloyd asks "Does that mean that Sylvarant and Tethe'alla have stopped competing for each other's mana?" Volt speaks again in response, which Raine translates as "I do not know. The only thing certain is that the flow of mana between the worlds has been severed."

Undine nods her head and states "Yes. Eventually the worlds shall separate." Zelos exclaims "That's perfect! Then they'll stop competing for each other's mana!"

Raine takes all the information into consideration and says out loud "There are five seals in Sylvarant. And since there wasn't a Summon Spirit at the fifth seal, we should be able to sever all of the mana if awaken the Summon Spirits that correspond to the other four seals. …Maybe."

"So if we awaken Tethe'alla's Summon Spirits, we'll save Sylvarant without having Tethe'alla go into decline, right?" Lloyd asks, to which Undine answers honestly with "At the least, the mana connecting the worlds will disappear and the two worlds will separate."

With the two Summon Spirits saying all that they needed to, Undine vanishes in a flash of light while Volt transforms into a golden glimmer that falls down into Sheena's open palm. The two connect with their pact, allowing Sheena the ability to summon Volt with a purple seal should she so desire it.

Regal looks at the group and comments "I see. So the seals serve as a link between the two worlds." Presea walks up beside Sheena and looks up at her, saying in a subdued, appreciative tone "…We owe it all to you, Sheena…and Corrine a well."

Sheena, who was deep in her own thoughts now that Volt was in her control, took a moment to respond to Presea's reply with a simple "…Huh?"

"Because the two of you risked your lives to the form the pact with Volt, we now know what the seals do." Presea explains. Lloyd causes Sheena to turn around and face him with a thankfuly sounding "That's right. It's thanks to both of you."

Sheena closes her eyelids and thinks back to her happy memories with Corrine one last time, remembering the little fox's promise to treasure her kindness forever. Now it was Sheena's turn to return the favor as she lifted the bell up to her face and whispered out "…Corrine…I will never forget your support…My friend…"

_Next Time: Attack on Renegade_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Renegade Assault I: Infiltration**

The group began to leave the Temple of Lightning now that Volt was dealt with. Sheena was glancing at the purple seal she had acquired to help summon him and Corrine's bell at the same time. She quietly sighed and then put the seal away, looking up at the area ahead of her with a little more confidence on her face than she had before entering the temple.

In the middle of most of the group, Riku glances down at his right hand and spreads the fingers, crackling electricity between them with a half-smile on his face. "Now I got electricity back. Really wish I could have gone for Light or Darkness first, but that's just not in the cards…" Riku whispers the last part of his sentence to himself.

As the group crosses the electric conductors that turn on and off and impede their progress by a few seconds, Riku just simply shuts them down with a few pointer finger gestures just to test out his powers again. With a little bolt of electricity shooting out with each movement he manages to grab the attention of Raine, who walks up beside him and observes his actions for a bit before commenting "Interesting, so you don't need to wear a protective substance before creating electricity."

"Huh?" Riku glances over at Raine as he shuts off the last two conductors and says to her "None of my elements cause harm to my body. I could create flames as hot as the sun and I wouldn't even sweat."

"But you can't stop the detrimental effects from affecting your allies, can you?" Raine asks in an inquisitor-like tone. Riku shakes his head and compliments the professor with "How perceptive of you Raine. Yeah, unlike yours and Genis' magic, I can't make my elements distinguish between friend or foe. But honestly, I've gotten used to fighting alongside others, so you shouldn't have to worry about being singed by a stray lightning bolt."

"I was never worried about that, but thank you for bringing attention to that anyways." Raine drops the conversation after that sentence, since as the group left the temple they were intercepted by Orochi, as expected.

The ninja looked over the group, seeing that everyone was still alive and that Sheena seemed to have a more relaxed expression on her face. With this, he is able to safely says "I guess you succeeded in forming the pact with Volt. Congratulations, Sheena."

"…Thank you, Orochi." Sheena comments quietly. Orochi senses a bit of melancholy in Sheena's voice, but doesn't pursue the matter and gets down to business with "Now, the whereabouts of the Rheairds."

The ninja pulls out a scroll and hands it over to Sheena. She opens the scroll up to reveal a map of Tethe'alla with a small red "X" on the eastern edge near a large frozen mass. "The signal from Sheena's guardian was detected under the sea southeast of here. A fjord-like area covered in ice is located there. That must be the entrance to the Renegade base."

"If it's underwater, does that mean we'll have to dive into the sea?" Raine asks. Orochi shakes his head and reassures her with "Don't worry about that. I'll go on ahead and make preparations. You guys shall meet up with me later." Orochi then turns around and departs from the temple.

Lloyd enthusiastically states "Okay, let's get going!" He pumps his fist in front of his body at the end of his sentence, while Presea quietly says behind him "…Yes, to rescue Colette as well."

"Yeah. I hope Colette is all right." Zelos says in a concerned voice, and once Presea nods her head in agreement the group departs from the Temple of Lightning for good. At the dock they use their EC to head-off for the Renegade base with the help of the map Orochi gave them. Consider the distance it would take them though, they wouldn't arrive there until the next morning.

It had already been a long enough day as is, since they started with a trip to Sybak and ended with Volt's defeat and subsequent pact with Sheena. Everyone started to quiet down for the night, but not before having a few more conversations.

In particular, Genis approached a sitting Riku and said to him nervously "U-Umm…Riku, can I speak to you for a moment?" The teenage Overlord pats the metal ground beside himself and says "Sit down Genis, I'm willing to talk."

The half-elf boy sits down beside the boy and glances at him after stretching his legs out to get comfortable, asking him quietly "R-Riku, are you in love with my sister?"

Riku flinches in surprise and nervously stutters out "H-Huh? What gave you that idea?" His composure was lost a little bit thanks to this, but he tries to calm himself as Genis mentions after glancing away from the boy "I saw you and her talking in the Temple of Lightning, and Zelos told me that you two did something early in the morning together…"

Riku glances over at the Chosen of Tethe'alla in a rather piercing manner, and though Zelos notices this he nonchalantly brushes it off with a whistle. Looking back at Genis, the teenage Overlord comments "Well you made a mistake by listening to Zelos of all people. Raine and I just put some books away. But can I ask why our conversation just earlier concern you?"

"Well I just think she's really interested in you." Genis makes his concerns obvious, but Riku laughs slightly and leans his head back against the wall while saying to the half-elf "She's interested in my powers, Genis. I'm pretty certain she doesn't want to have a relationship with me. We have about an eight year age gap between us, after all."

"You're 15?" Genis turns at the boy and asks him with a look of surprise on his face. "But you look about as old as Lloyd and Colette." He then brings up. "Lloyd and Colette are 17, right? There's not really THAT big of a difference in age between us, honestly, so our statures are naturally similar." Riku explains.

"…Though since you've brought this up now, I have to ask…Why would you have a problem with me and Raine having a relationship?" Riku asks. Genis sinks his head a bit and explains quietly to Riku "Truth be told, I'd have a problem if anyone got into a relationship with my sister. She's my sister, so I know what she's like…And I just can't imagine her ever falling in love with another man."

"At least you're telling me your concerns. When something's bothering you, sometimes it's better to talk about it with someone." Riku says before he turns his head back straight, thinking that his conversation with Genis was over with. But the half-elf hangs his head down and proceeds to ask him "…Riku, s-speaking of that…H-How do you get the confidence to talk to someone you l-l-…like?"

"Hmm? This actually feels a little more personal, shouldn't you be talking to Lloyd about this?" Riku asks. Genis shakes his head and chuckles before admitting "Lloyd's my best friend, but he can be really, REALLY clueless sometimes. You seem to know a lot though, and unlike Zelos I don't think you'd mock me for asking."

Riku sadly shrugs his shoulders and says to the half-elf "Love is something I know little about. Sorry, but I can't help you with Presea." Genis stutters out awkwardly "I-I d-didn't say anything about P-P-P-"

"Relax Genis, everyone here can tell you have a crush on her…Except Presea herself, ironically enough." Riku explains to try and make the boy feel a little more comfortable, but inevitably all that does is make the half-elf sigh and say "…Figures…" in a dejected tone.

Riku feels guilty about how he handled the situation and says to him truthfully "Sorry Genis, I wish I could help you more."

About a half-hour after that conversation, everyone sans Riku went to sleep. The teenage Overlord decided to keep a watch out in case the tides suddenly shifted against their favor, especially considering that Sheena and him were the only two who could calm the tides, but of the two only he was able to stay up without detriment to his body.

The hours passed on by without much incident, and it was only once the sun rose a fifth of the way up until the sky that Riku clapped his hands together to try and wake some of the group up. Zelos is the first to awaken, and he enthusiastically lifted himself up while stretching his arms and saying "Awwwww yeah! Time to go find us some Rheairds today!"

"Do you have to be so obnoxious?" Lloyd mumbles out in an annoyed tone as he smacks his lips and sits himself upright. Zelos grins brightly at his buddy and says to him "Oh come on Lloyd, you know you couldn't live without a little Zelos in your mornings!"

"…I think I'd be fine with a Zelos free diet for a month or two." Lloyd dryly replies with, which causes Zelos to flinch backwards with a fake look of distress on his face.

Once everyone has gotten up, Sheena pulls out the map and walks to the front of the EC, watching the outside of the ship for anything that may look similar to the area near the red X Orochi marked. "Looks like we're going to have to go through some rocks. Anyone want to take control of the ship?"

Zelos stretches his arms in front of his body and says "Stand aside my lovely Sheena, I have a little expertise with this thing." With a crack of his knuckles, the suave Chosen heads to the wheel of the ship after Sheena places the map in front of it before turning around and shrugging her shoulders as she walks off.

Surprising everyone, Zelos actually competently swerves the EC through the icy rocks until he manages to land the vessel in front of the lone dock in the area. As the group exits the vessel and puts it in the wing pack, Zelos looks at Lloyd and Genis' disbelieving expressions while he folds his arms behind his head. He then walks off and merrily whistles, while Genis says to his friend "Great, he's going to let this go to his head."

"Don't mind him Genis, he's in his own little world…Like always." Lloyd says with the utmost nonchalance in his voice. "Anyways, let's go meet up with Orochi."

The group walks across the ground towards the metallic gateway that was very well concealed within the side of the rocky wall in the area. Along the way, Presea walks beside Genis, which triggers the half-elf's awkward blush almost immediately. The girl looks down at the lower part of his body, causing his heart to beat a couple times in rapid succession before she comments "…Genis. Your shirt is hanging out."

"Uh? Wh…where?" Genis nervously asks, pausing in place as the girl kneels down and takes the loose part of his shirt, neatly tucking it back in without saying a word. "Th…Thanks." Genis looks away and rubs the back of his head.

Presea nods her head and says as she stands upright "…You're…still a child, it seems." This remark freaks Genis out, and without any thought he looks at Presea and exclaims "What?! I…I'm not a child! I'm grown up, too!"

Presea flinches in response and says to the half-elf afterwards "…Ah? Oh…right. You're an adult. Okay, Genis. We can call you that." With both parties not realizing how wrong their words sounded, Genis once again yells at Presea by saying "Hey, you're treating me like a kid again! It's not like you're any older than I am!"

But it was at that point that both of them realize how they are acting, with Presea snapping back into reality and glancing down at her small, young body before commenting in a melancholy tone "Ah…right…" Genis tries to muster up the courage to apologize to the girl, but before he can say a single word Lloyd proclaims to them both "Genis, Presea, quit holding us up! We need you!"

Presea turns towards Lloyd and says to him "Sorry…" She then goes back to the group, while Genis at first angrily shakes his fist at Lloyd before lowering his tension and saying to himself quietly "…Why am I so stupid…?"

When the group has gathered again, they head back towards the gate and find a half-elf wearing green and black armor much like the ones the two soldiers following Yuan wore earlier. Lloyd immediately draws out one sword and says "Shoot, someone's on guard duty!"

But before Lloyd can attack the 'Renegage', Orochi appears beside the green-armored warrior and says "Relax. He's on of our people who's infiltrated the Renegades. It's the easiest way to investigate the declining world of Sylvarant."

Lloyd blinks his eyes a couple times in surprise before sheathing his sword and saying in surprise "Wow! So you guys even keep tabs on Sylvarant!" The disguised Mizuho citizen folds his hand in front of his chest and says "But you weren't wrong. I am the man on duty at the moment. Please go in through the entrance now."

The guy stands aside, and Orochi guides the group through the large doors behind him. But when no one was looking, Zelos slipped off to the left side of the base. Inside the base, Orochi guides the group to a room detached from contact with most of the Renegades, which was filled to the brim with multiple monitors that kept track of every single room in the base. There was also an altar similar to the ones for the Sorcerer's Ring off to the left. As expected of the Renegades and Tethe'alla in general, the base had a very cybernetic feel to it.

"Heh, reminds me of the Egg Continent." Riku whispers to himself as he reminisces about past travels. While everyone stood in place in front of Orochi, Lloyd looked around and finally notices "Huh? Hey, Zelos is gone."

His words grab everyone else's attention, with Presea commenting "You're right. I wonder what happened to him." Right as she says that, Zelos comes walking in through the nearby doors, nonchalantly stating "Ah, hey, sorry to keep you waiting, my cute hunnies. Were you lonely?"

Regal is naturally suspicious of Zelos' disappearance and asks "What were you doing? Everyone was worried about you." Zelos quickly snatches Regal's question in his mind and replies "I was just taking a quick look around the area. We wouldn't want to walk into a trap, now would we? Well, now it's time to the start the adventure of the Great Zelos and his cute hunnies!"

The shift into another one of his suave antics makes most of the group drop the subject as Zelos walks over, but Riku glares at him suspiciously until Orochi says "There's no time. I'm going to explain this quickly. The Rheaird Hangar is in the deepest part of this facility. There's only one passage to the hangar."

Zelos nonchalantly comments "Sounds like a piece of cake." Orochi glares at him momentarily and then turns back to the group before continuing "Even if you get to the hangar, the door will be shut. In order to open that lock, you must enter a pass code."

"So do you have the pass code?" Lloyd asks. Orochi shakes his head and then explains "I'm sorry. We did our best, but we weren't able to get the pass code. But we did find out that there are three pass codes, and each code is in the possession of a different Renegade."

"In other words, we need to catch those three and get them to tell us the pass codes?" Lloyd asks. "Yes. I'll remain here and support you by watching the monitors and stopping anyone who tries to enter this room. Before you go though, know that even if you get the Rheairds, it's highly unlikely they'll be able to make the transfer to Sylvarant in their current condition."

Everyone looks at Orochi in puzzlement, leading him to explain "The Rheairds dimensional transfer system functions by procuring energy from the Renegade bases in the two worlds. Flying is not a problem as long as you have Volt, but without the energy charge from the base…"

"Then the reason we were able to go from Sylvarant to Tethe'alla was pure luck?" Sheena points out, leading to Lloyd noting in turn "That doesn't matter yet. Right now, we just need to fly."

"But before we head off, can I suggest something?" Riku says to the group, leading to Lloyd turning around and asking him "What's up Riku?"

"If we have to grab a few passwords, then that means we need to be stealthy. Having eight guys running around the base at the same time would lead to us getting caught and possibly captured since we don't know what our enemies are capable of here." Riku explains.

"Are you suggesting splitting the group up?" Regal asks in a curious tone, which leads to Riku looking at him and nodding his head while saying "One group tackles the Rheairds, and the other group stays in front of the base just in case Yuan is currently out. If he comes back, we'll hold him off to buy you time."

"That's not a bad idea." Raine says, following up by mentioning "But Lloyd and Sheena should be with the infiltration group, since Lloyd has had experience with the Renegades while Sheena has Volt on her side."

"That's fine with me. I'll stick with the outside defense group, but all I ask is that Zelos comes along with me." Riku's request causes the Chosen to say "Huh? Why me?"

"Well I need at least one person adept with magic, but Genis and Lloyd have better synergy and Raine has more defensive spells." Riku explains, but in his head he thinks back to how suspicious Zelos' sudden departure was.

"So Genis, Sheena and Raine should come with me, while Presea, Regal and Zelos goes with you?" Lloyd pieces together what Riku wants to do, and the teenage Overlord nods his head before asking "Is that ok with you?

"Sure, but how are you going to get on the Rheairds once we're done?" Lloyd inquires. Riku gestures upward with his thumb and says "All the Rheairds seem to run on the same wavelength judging by how one of Yuan's guys managed to get all four of them off of the mountain. Just bring three extra Rheairds out and I'll carry Presea, Zelos and Regal up to them with wind spheres."

"Wait, three? Don't you mean four?" Lloyd says, leading to Riku chuckling slightly and saying in a rather nonchalant tone "Oh yeah, did I mention before that I can fly?"

Most of the group looks at Riku with surprised expressions, with Genis pointing out sarcastically "No, I think we'd remember an important detail like that!" To which Riku replies with "Well to be fair, there wasn't really a need to bring it up before."

"_Then again, I really just opened a can of worms for later…" _Riku thinks before looking back over at Lloyd and saying "Anyways, so are we fine with this plan?"

Everyone but Zelos nods their head in agreement, and after splitting the group up in two they began to head off to accomplish their goals. Lloyd, Genis, Raine and Sheena head north of the entrance to infiltrate the base further, and find themselves close to a Sorcerer's Ring altar.

"Huh, so they have one at this base too." Lloyd moves his hand towards the light and changes the ring's function. He tests it out immediately, and has a rather dull reaction when a ball of lightning shoots out. "Awww, again? That's disappointing, I'm just going to change it back…"

Lloyd is about to turn it back to normal when Raine grabs him by the wrist gently and says "Wait a minute Lloyd. We can use that to stun the Renegade soldiers and drag them off to a solitary location so we can interrogate the passwords out of them."

"That's my sis, always coming up with plans when Lloyd doesn't think things through." Genis jokingly comments, leading to Lloyd stating after pulling his arm back into his body "Shut up Genis."

The four head through the next door to try and seek out any Renegade soldiers. The area is surprisingly empty though, with barely a soul in sight. "Huh, this is weird…I thought the Renegades would have more soldiers." Sheena comments.

"If Yuan is still after Lloyd, he might have sent out Renegade scouts across Tethe'alla to find him. That would explain the vacancy of the base, but if so I hope this won't stop us from finding the pass codes." Raine says with her usually intellectual tone.

The group walks quietly through the base to avoid attracting attention until they run across two Renegade soldiers in red and green garb standing around talking to each other. The four quickly hide behind a large stack of crates with Raine glancing past the side since she's the likeliest to not ruin things with a clumsy action.

"So did you hear about Lloyd Irving? I heard he and his friends might have infiltrated our base." One of the Renegades says. The other one points out "The boss is looking for him because of his Exsphere, right? I wonder how he'll reward the one who brings him in."

"I hope he gives them a trip to Altamira. I'm surprised that the humans could make such a nice looking resort." "He's not that generous. He'll probably just give us a massive Gald bonus." "Well we could just go to Altamira anyways in that case."

One of the Renegades look back, but Raine retracts her head before she's caught. "Anyways, we should probably get back to our posts. Try and stay on guard, you have one of the parts of the password to the Rheairds Hangar." The other Renegade's info drop causes Raine to flinch in surprise.

When the two Renegades split off from each other, Raine immediately goes for Lloyd's right hand and pulls it out beside her body, using the Sorcerer's Ring to send out a bolt of electricity that zaps the Renegade with the code and causes him to fall into Sheena's arms unconscious after a few seconds. The ninja pulls her body back behind the crates and hauls the soldier over her shoulders, letting out a couple drops of sweat while commenting "These guys are heavy…So now what?"

Raine lets go of Lloyd's hand and looks around her, finding a single door off behind where they stand. "That looks secluded, lets try that out." After she says that, the four of them walk over to the door and open it, finding themselves in a small square room that appears to have once been used for storage. After Sheena lays the Renegade against the wall, the man wakes up and finds himself being stared down by all four people.

"Y-You're Lloyd Irving and his friends! What are you doing with me?!" The Renegade stutters out. Lloyd confidently says to the man "We want your part of the pass code. You'd better just give it to us, it's four against one."

The Renegade starts to reach for his arm gauntlet while composing himself and saying "You think I'm alone? Our boss is going to give me a promotion for cornering you four!"

Before the Renegade can set off the base's alarm with a single button, Raine whips out her staff and smashes the man in the side of the head to give him a mild concussion and knock him unconscious. When the man limps onto the side of his body, Raine puts his staff away and whispers out "…Ok, so much for interrogation…"

"Well…Maybe he has the passcode in his clothes?" Lloyd suggests. After taking that into consideration, Raine kneels down and quickly undresses the man, leaving him in his undergarments as she stands up and looks over the clothes, finding a small little plate on the inside that says "THE LIFE OF MANA".

"Hmm, this must be the first part of the code." Raine puts the plate away in one of her pockets for further use, but now that they've got these clothes in their possession the half-elf professor whipped up an idea.

"We obviously won't get the codes out of the Renegades with our current plan. So one of us should dress up like the Renegades and try to pry the information out of the other two." Raine looks up after detailing this plan, glaring at Lloyd with a sly expression as the boy blinks a couple times in confusion.

"Wait, why me?" Lloyd states in disbelief. "Genis is too small, Sheena is too well-endowed, and I am your professor and am telling you to put this on."

"Hey wait, that last one isn't a valid reason!" Lloyd protests and tries to back off, but since he didn't want to blow their cover he didn't go out the door. After a brief scuffle, Lloyd is dressed up as a Renegade soldier. His swords are kept with the others to keep up the masquerade, which leads to Lloyd sighing as he holds his right hand down and immediately feels the lack of a sword handle to lean on.

"Don't worry Lloyd, I know you can do it. Just speak like a Renegade would and you'll get the other two pass codes in no time." Genis says, but it's clear by his tone of voice that he not only has little faith in Lloyd's abilities but he is also humored by this event.

"Ugh…Fine. Just stay here until I return…" Lloyd turns around and walks out of the room. He is not even gone five minutes before the door swings open and Lloyd is seen ripping the Renegade suit off of his body to show his regular red clothes underneath. He picks his swords up and attaches them to his belt, turning around and drawing his weapons out as about a dozen Renegade soldiers run at the door.

"What did you do Lloyd?!" Sheena exclaims as she pulls out two of her seals for battle. "The Professor put those clothes on backwards! I was discovered instantly!" Lloyd explains, leading to Raine nervously blinking her eyes and commenting "…Well, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I made a mistake."

As the Renegades swarm the area, one of them says "Capture them alive for Master Yuan!" …But his bravado doesn't matter as about ten minutes later the four have cleared out all the Renegades and acquired the last two pass codes from their unconscious bodies.

Lloyd sheathes his swords and says "Whew…That was a little annoying. I can't believe we didn't just do this in the first place."

As Raine looks over the three pass code chips, she mentions to Lloyd in response "I was just trying to not grab Yuan's attention, but he doesn't appear to be around…Just like Riku said he'd likely not be…" The last part of her sentence is spoken only to herself, and her suspicion of the boy grows.

"Anyways, the pass code is 'THE LIFE OF MANA IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD'. The Rheaird Hangar shouldn't be too far away, let's go find it." Raine says. Like she said, the four don't have to go far to find the locked door, and after inputting the code the doors swing open to reveal a very wide open room with an elongated metallic tunnel and a ton of Rheairds hanging around pointed towards the tunnel itself.

As the four enter the room, they are ambushed by a voice from a familiar face "So you've come, like moths to the flame."

Lloyd immediately swings to the left and finds the enigmatic Yuan leaning against a wall off to the side with his arms folded against his chest. As the man pulls away and starts to walk towards them, the rest of the group looks to the right to find another man with pulled up black hair, a goatee, and a set of grey archaic clothes. He also had spiked-ears, signifying that he was a half-elf.

Lloyd says in an unimpressed tone of voice as he pulls out both of his swords "Do you EVER say anything original?" Yuan brushes the bang of his hair with one hand and comments "I see time hasn't changed your attitude! But your impudence ends here!"

Yuan grabs the side of his cloak and throws it right off, revealing a set of ancient looking red and black armor. The man then holds his right hand in front of his body and uses magic to summon forth a large, double-bladed sword with ridged edges and a design similar to his armor on both sides. "Prepare to die!" Yuan exclaims as he swings his weapon behind his body and holds the other hand out in front.

The half-elf man draws out a triangular shaped crystal blue sword and looks at Genis, Raine and Sheena, saying in a respectful tone of voice "Forgive me my half-elf brethren, but you have chosen the wrong side."

Raine, Genis and Sheena pulls out their weapons, with the professor saying to the man's words calmly "That has yet to be seen."

Meanwhile, on the outside of the base, Zelos can be seen leaning against the wall off to the left of the gate. His eyelids were closed as he lets out a bored yawn and comments to his three companions "Man, why did we have to do this? We're missing out on all the fun inside."

Riku, who was standing against the opposite wall with a more serious look on his face, glances at Zelos and says to him "Well, I got an idea to make things more interesting, Zelos."

The Chosen opens his eyelids and says "Heh, you have an idea? After your suggestion to drag me out into this snore fest of a job, I kind of doubt that."

Riku brushes off Zelos' joking attitude and with Regal staring at the Chosen as though they were on the same wavelength, the teenage Overlord states bluntly "What were you doing while we were entering the base?"

Zelos looks over at Riku with a more serious expression and says "I was just examining the outside of the base just in case the Renegades had any traps set up to blow up the Rheairds as we left"

"I checked the outside of the base already, there's no way you could have seen the Rheaird exit chute." Riku bluntly replies.

Regal joins in at that point as Zelos looks a little more distraught, commenting in a firm tone of voice "Zelos, be honest with us. What were you doing outside the base?"

Before Zelos is forced to explain himself, Presea interrupts the three by pulling out her axe and dropping the head against the ground, creating a light tremor before commenting "Someone is approaching."

Considering Presea's reaction, Zelos, Regal and Riku drop the matter of what the Chosen was up to for the time being and looks past the base. Much to everyone's surprise, the Mizuho citizen in the Renegade's guard outfit falls to the ground with a diagonal spray of blood coming from his chest. Standing in front of the man's body is Kratos Aurion, who was someone Riku was definitely not expecting to see at this moment.

"K-Kratos?!" Riku immediately pulls away from the wall and draws out his sword, his urgency in this matter causing Regal to wonder "What is he doing here?"

Kratos walks around the guy he just cut down, taking a few steps past him with a cold stride before he ends up close enough to the group of four to raise his right hand up slightly in front of his handle and comment "Elemental Overlord, it has been decided by Lord Yggdrasill that your travels with the Chosen's group are over. I have come to bring you to him."

_Next Time: Two Fronts of Battle_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Renegade Assault II: Battle for the Rheairds**

"I told you before Kratos, if Yggdrasill wants me, he would need to come after me himself." Riku states, trying to put on a brave face against the holy warrior standing before him as he keeps his sword held in place ready for a possible battle.

Kratos is barely fazed by the boy's words, and says with a gesture of his hand "His actions are not your decision to make, especially now that the situation has changed for you. I would also suggest you put your sword away, you do not wish to fight me this time around."

The man's words did not reek of arrogance, but rather he was subtly giving a warning to the teenage Overlord. Riku was curious to know what made Kratos act differently than he did before, especially with the way the last encounter ended, but before he could ask that Zelos pushed away from the wall and looked at Kratos, brushing his left arm out to hold Riku back while saying to the man "First you help us out and then try to kidnap one of our allies? What's up with that?"

"You are in no position to be asking such questions, Chosen of Tethe'alla." Kratos points out in a firm tone of voice, leading to Zelos responding with "Well sorry if your actions don't add up. I mean if you wanted to capture Riku for your leader, wouldn't it have made more sense to do it back at Ozette?"

"At the time I hadn't received the order to capture him, it was only when you made the effort to form a pact with Volt that Lord Yggdrassil told me to bring him to him." Kratos explains himself, leading to Regal raising his eyebrows curiously and whispering "Cruxis knows we're making pacts with Summon Spirits?"

"Yeah, no." Zelos brushes off Kratos' words and pulls out his sword and shield, saying to the man with a brimming smile on his face "I may not have known Riku for long, but that doesn't mean I am just going to let Cruxis get their hands on someone they want."

Presea and Regal step forward as well, with Riku glancing back and forth at them as Regal points out "If your master wants him so badly, then it's up to you to do everything in your power to bring him back. Are you prepared to fight all four of us, Kratos?"

Kratos closes his eyelids and quietly sighs to himself before leading into "I can't say that I'm surprised. Very well, if force shall be required…" The man wraps his fingers around the handle of his sword and begins to draw it out, and when it was only a couple inches out of the hilt Riku felt something odd in the atmosphere…A slight ripple in the fabric of space and time was what he could compare it to.

When the warrior of Cruxis draws his sword out all the way, what appears most prominently is the burning yellow metal around the crystalline crimson blade. Riku's eyes widen in worried shock as he sees Kratos draw this blade, and for reasons he can't explain a drop of sweat starts to trickle down the side of his face.

"The…The Eternal Sword…" Riku's mouth is agape with fright as he whispers out the name of the blade to no one but himself. Trying to compose himself, the teenage Overlord reminds himself that Kratos wasn't wielding the actual blade, but rather a fragment of the sword's power. But for that fragment to make him worry…

However, as Riku looks at Zelos, Presea and Regal, he realizes where his real concerns lie. Kratos was asked only to bring the Elemental Overlord to Yggdrassil…Anyone else who stands in his way will likely be cut down just like the Mizuho citizen just moments ago. "None of you need to fight for my sake! Just back off and let me handle him!" Riku tries to make his allies back off with these words, but they don't budge an inch.

"Don't try and dissuade us Riku. Even if he wasn't after you, he's still presenting himself to us as an enemy, right?" Zelos replies, glancing behind his shoulder before continuing on with "Don't you trust us to help you out?"

Riku knew why Zelos specifically mentioned trust, and as the Chosen of Tethe'alla moved his head back to face Kratos the teenage Overlord let out a troubled sigh before admitting "It's not that I don't trust you Zelos, but I don't want any of you to die fighting my battle."

"Pffft, none of us are going to die here. Not while we still have goals to accomplish." Zelos comments in his usually brash tone. Regal and Presea nod their heads in agreement, leading to Riku stepping forward beside Zelos and saying to him "You know, you don't have to go this far Zelos, the only girl around here to impress is way below your age."

Zelos chuckles, while Riku swings his sword out beside his body and says to everyone "If we're doing this though, let me take the lead. I'm the only one here with experience fighting Kratos."

Kratos glances at the group of four and says to Riku specifically "Are you done preparing yourself? It's now time for me to open your eyes to the truth, Elemental Overlord."

Zelos holds his shield arm in front of his body and summons forth a red glyphic seal below himself while saying, while Presea, Regal and Riku run straight at Kratos. Riku leaps at the Cruxis warrior and swings his sword at the fragment of the Eternal Sword that's lifted in defense, and the two clash with Kratos barely shifting his expression in response.

Back inside the Renegade Base, another battle was well underway. Yuan and Lloyd were currently locking blades, with Lloyd's two swords being just enough to keep the Renegade leader from breaking through his offense. Yuan swings his sword to the right with enough force to push Lloyd off of him, and he then leaps back and holds his weapon behind his body while stating "You've…improved" in frustrated surprise to himself.

Lloyd launches off a fanged projectile at Yuan, but the man cleaves his sword along the ground to carve up debris that is sent flying at the boy while also dealing with the attack. Lloyd puts up his right sword to block the debris, while Yuan leaps off the ground and grabs the handle of his sword with both hands, bring it down like a mighty spear against the ground in front of Lloyd to split apart the floor and summon forth a mighty lightning bolt down upon him.

Due to the nature of the attack Yuan is completely unharmed while he simultaneously sends out a field of electricity around his body that gets Lloyd by the feet while he was still defending, paralyzing him while putting his body through a few thousand volts of electricity. While Lloyd lets out a brief cry of pain, Yuan jumps up while still grabbing the center of his sword, swinging himself forward and kicking Lloyd square in the gut to send him flying before landing on the ground and pulling his sword back out.

Lloyd lands on his back and skids for a couple feet, but then he regains control of his body and uses his elbows to kick himself back onto his feet and plant his swords to stop his momentum entirely. Lloyd then runs back at Yuan while dragging his swords along the ground, picking them up to launch two fanged projectiles one after the other and then raise them both above his head as he leaps off the ground.

While he's in mid-air Lloyd uses his forward momentum to spin his body around, the rapid rotation of his blades as he descends forcing Yuan to plant his sword back into the ground to block the two projectiles and then leap back before Lloyd cuts him down. The swordsman spreads his arms out before he lands between Yuan and his sword, saying as he looks up at the defenseless Renegade "Got you now!"

This remark is followed up by Lloyd kicking into a charge at Yuan while crossing his swords, but the Renegade merely scowls while holding a hand in front of his body and proclaiming "Guardian!" His body is wrapped in a green field of energy that blocks Lloyd's slash at the center of both blades, but the boy drags his swords apart, grinding the metal together while pressing against Yuan's barrier with all of his might.

The Renegade leader actually has to exert a little more effort to keep his Guardian from breaking, which might not have been the best of plans even once Lloyd's swords break away from his barrier and clang against the ground on both sides of his body. The moment the barrier drops, Yuan pants a couple of times, but before Lloyd can attack him again he recovers and summons forth his angel wings to leap into the air and fly back over to his sword.

Once there Yuan picks it back up and swings one edge against the ground, fracturing the floor and sending out a heavy-looking fanged projectile that tears apart even more of the floor as it seeks out Lloyd. The swordsman turns around just in time to let out a surprised "Whoa!" and hold both of his swords in a cross to block against the projectile, which collides with his body and rapidly sends him grinding towards the wall behind him.

The collision with the wall creates a mild eruption of dirt and dust, while Yuan pulls his sword out of the ground and waits for Lloyd to come back out, knowing that he would be safe thanks to the Expshere. Sure enough, Lloyd peels out of the rocky exterior of the wall's indent with minor damage inflicted upon his body.

Lloyd then leaps into the air and points his sword forward, diving straight at Yuan with a drill-shaped field of air swirling around him for the brief second he charges. Yuan takes the brunt of the attack with one of his blades and lets Lloyd land as he is pushed back a couple of feet, but once he's got his bearings Yuan swings his sword down diagonally at the boy. Once more the blade connects with the ground and breaks it apart, sending the underground stone at Lloyd in the form of debris as he leaps back.

Some of the debris flies into Lloyd's eyes, blinding him temporarily with the trickle of water out of his eyes as he lands on the ground. Yuan holds his left hand out and sends out a small fireball after conjuring up a spell seal around his wrist. Lloyd's hit by the fire ball in the chest and sent back, his coat singing slightly in a ring of smoke as the blindness subsides.

But when the smoke subsides Lloyd waits for Yuan to attack him again, leading to them clashing swords for a good few seconds before the boy performs one hard vertical slash that applies enough pressure on Yuan's grip to make him pause for a couple moments while Lloyd draws his other sword back and thrusts it forward immediately afterwards, forcing Yuan to swing his head to the left with a worried flinch of his eyes. The hairs on his bang were cut off, but he wasn't thankful at all that his skin was missed just by the sheer implication of this attack.

"_Impossible…How is he doing this well?" _Yuan comments in his head as he waits for Lloyd to pull his blade back so he can stand upright and step a couple feet back. _"Have I really lost my touch…No, that can't be used as an excuse…My skills should always be retained by my Cruxis Crystal. Could it be that Lloyd's Exsphere…" _

Yuan distracted himself far too much with his inner thoughts, allowing Lloyd to swing his swords from the right side of his body and force Yuan to raise his own weapon upon. But the delay made it so that Lloyd's swords collide with the back of his hand, and the sharpness of his weapons cuts through the gauntlet and draws blood from Yuan's skin. The pain makes Yuan drop his sword onto the ground and jump back a foot while simultaneously gripping his wrist with his other hand and grimacing in shock.

Lloyd stands up and swings one sword at Yuan, smiling while saying "Haha, looks like you aren't all that after all!" Yuan matches Lloyd's moment of overconfidence by extending his right hand out and exclaiming "Don't think you've won yet, Lloyd!" A bolt of lightning is shot out from his palm after he summons a seal, and Lloyd's right shoulder is struck right through by the attack even after he swerves slightly out of the way.

The burning sensation through the shoulder makes Lloyd drop one of his swords, while Yuan pants a couple of times and shakes the pain off of his right hand before picking his weapon back up. The numbness in his grip made it a little harder to keep a hold of the weapon, but because of his own inability to heal himself he briefly glanced over his shoulder as Lloyd was distracted with his own affairs to proclaim "Botta! Heal me now!"

The half-elf swordsman heard his boss' demand for help as he finishes casting an erupting blast on Raine and Genis to stop their own spell-casting for a little bit of time, but in order to help Yuan out Botta swung his right arm up and activated his Exsphere's Over Limit to summon a black field around his body as he sees Sheena charge straight at him with seals at the ready. Botta plants his sword into the ground and keeps his palm atop the handle while waving his other hand at Yuan and summoning a white glyphic circle.

"First Aid!" Botta proclaims as Sheena swipes two seals onto his body that explode as she leaps back. But the effects of Over Limit prevent him from flinching by absorbing the damage, and his spell successfully heals up Yuan's hand so he can continue his battle with Lloyd unimpeded. Botta pulls his sword out of the ground as Sheena tries to go for another attack, lifting it up with enough force to thrust a wave of debris at the ninja and force her on the defensive.

Sheena flips back after taking the brunt of the debris, landing behind Raine and Genis as Botta lifts his left hand up and says to them "It is not too late. You can abandon the boy's idealistic journey and join the Renegades. You can be with your kind, as it should be."

Genis flips his kendama off to the side of his face while replying to Botta's offer with "Lloyd's my friend, and he doesn't care that I'm a half-elf! So here's my answer!" Casting a spell, the half-elf boy sends a few fireballs flying at Botta, but the man cleaves them down with his sword with little effort.

But then Raine uses her magic to send several rays of golden light towards Botta's body, and all of them converge to bind him in place before releasing in a singular burst that leaves the man stunned in place after he's sent back a few feet. Sheena runs past her half-elf allies and throws a seal at Botta's chest that explodes and knocks him onto his back, where the ninja then leaps into the air and delivers a powerful kick onto his chest that takes the wind out of the man as she kicks back onto the ground.

"Hmmm, I think we've made our point…" Raine quietly comments as she folds her arms and taps her staff against the side of her left one. The professor then glances over her shoulder and sees that Lloyd is holding up well against Yuan, which leads to her saying to her brother as she turns back and notices him ready to assist his friend "Genis, let Lloyd handle this on his own. So long as Yuan wants him alive, he's not in any danger." Genis then hesitantly stops casting magic and leaves Lloyd to Yuan despite his worried expression…

Back outside the Renegade Base, Kratos stands before the group of four that stood against him. Presea, Regal and Zelos were on their knees trying their hardest to maintain consciousness, while Riku limply hangs forward on his feet with his sword still barely drawn. Kratos was relatively unharmed, save for a couple minor cuts on his armor. "This was about all I expected from you. At least you made it easier for me to bring you back to Lord Yggdrassil." Kratos comments in a stoic tone towards Riku.

As the teenage Overlord breathes in and out in a tired manner, he looks at Kratos' fragment of the Eternal Sword and thinks to himself _"Something isn't right…Even with the knowledge that he wasn't using the Eternal Sword, I was never worried about fighting Kratos before…But now he's beating me like I'm some sort of novice."_

These thoughts made Riku grit his teeth together, his mind wrought with concern over this sudden shift in power between him and the Cruxis warrior. Kratos notices the shift in demeanor in the boy and tilts his head to the side while lifting an eyebrow up and saying "Are you finally starting to realize your folly, Elemental Overlord? The moment you came to this world, your fate was sealed."

"The moment…I came to this world…?" Riku repeats these words in a slowly puzzled tone, his voice stretching out into one of realization as he nears the end of his sentence as his eyes widen and he begins to review the facts present throughout his life.

"…_I always assumed that the only change that happened to me across multiple worlds was that my elemental powers were robbed from me and I would need to go to great lengths to get them back, but now that I compare my journey across the other four planets there is one major inconsistency…How can a man like Ganondorf give me trouble when he's just a somewhat powerful dark mage but later I end up holding my own against world-destroying abominations like Dark Samus and Dark Matter?"_

"…_Kratos is powerful, but only by the standards of his world…Considering my past encounters, I should be able to handle him easily, even when he has part of the Eternal Sword…Which can only mean one thing…It's not just my elements that have been taken from me, but my combat strength has been weakened immensely as well." _When the realization has fully hit his mind, Riku's eyes widen and he looks up at Kratos, whose current expression suggest that he somehow knew the details the teenage Overlord had pieced together.

"How could you know that…Kratos Aurion?" Riku firmly asks the man, his mind tiring of the vagueness in the Cruxis' warriors words.

"So you did figure out the truth, or rather, you realized what has happened to your body." Kratos says in response, and then he goes on to mention after a momentary sigh "Very well, I will try and tell you what I recall."

"By now you should have realized that the original Elemental Overlord made a visit to this world when he was still alive. During his time here, he threatened Lord Yggdrassil with death for the sake of preserving a 'balance' in the universe. But at the same time, Lord Yggdrassil received information regarding how the Elemental Overlord's powers worked from the 'higher-ups', info which was also divulged to myself at the time."

"Simply put, by nature the Elemental Overlord and his antithesis are designed to preserve the balance between light and darkness in the universe, but to deal with threats on a higher caliber the deterrents need to be as strong if not stronger than the threats they need to neutralize. This means that should the two ever need to deal with weaker worlds, a way to weaken the two needed to be implemented."

"Thus, the 'higher-ups' manipulated the atmospheres of thousands of worlds, making it so that the moment either the Elemental Overlord or his antithesis entered a world, they would be weakened to the point that they could only accomplish the tasks necessary to preserve balance. There are ways of surmounting the atmospheric effects, but I can tell just by looking that you have no such methods at your disposable."

When Kratos' explanation is at an end, Riku could barely believe a single word he was hearing. The fact that he struggled on a couple worlds made a bit of sense now, but at the same time this meant that the entire disaster that unfolded on the first world he ever went happened not just because he was inexperienced, but because a force that could not be named or seen by his very eyes was working against him.

But the most pressing question on Riku's mind was muttered out quietly towards the Cruxis' warrior "…Why? Why was I not told any of this before but you were allowed to know instead?"

"Who knows?" Kratos replies honestly, following up by stating "Had you not shown up, such information would have been inconsequential to myself, but now that the situation has been presented to me I need to do as Lord Yggdrassil asked. Know now that I hold nothing against you as I carry out my given task."

Kratos holds his sword up and swiftly swings it down, but Riku lifts his own blade up and blocks Kratos' attack with all of his remaining strength. The teenage Overlord looks up at Kratos' puzzled glance and says "Do you have no free will of your own, Kratos? Does Yggdrassil have you so chained to the leash that you can't even bark once at him in defiance?"

"Hmph, if you're trying to rile me up with a psychological taunt, you have chosen the wrong words. I follow Lord Yggdrassil because I believe his way is right." Kratos calmly responds as he pushes down on Riku's sword, forcing the teenage Overlord to start collapsing onto his knees as he struggles to keep Kratos at bay.

"I see things differently than you do Kratos. I think for myself, follow my own path, and help those who need assistance. I don't care about this 'balance' in the universe that those 'higher-ups' wish to keep. Especially when it means lending a hand in the devastation of a world or allowing this world to suffer. If you think that Lord Yggdrassil's way is right, then it is only natural that I will continue to defy Cruxis." Riku says with the utmost confidence in himself.

"You say that, and yet you follow the Chosen's group instead of pursuing your own agenda." Kratos retorts, leading to Riku saying boldly in response "We may be on the same journey, but our reasons for going on it are all different. I have no reason to give up on this world like you have, Kratos!"

The last sentence makes Kratos' demeanor break for a moment, which Riku takes full advantage of to summon forth a burst of wind from in front of his body to knock Kratos away from him. The man falls on his back and lets out a slightly pained grunt, but it doesn't take him long to get back onto his feet as Riku points his sword at him and says "I know you don't have what it takes to incapacitate me. Even in my current state, only Yggdrassil has it in him to go all-out to capture me. Prove me wrong Kratos, and show me that you have what it takes to demand this of your Lord."

Kratos looks at Riku and chuckles slightly at his bravado before he says calmly "That will not be necessary, so long as you are incapable of fending me off." The Cruxis warrior summons forth his wings and holds his sword out to the side, commenting in a quiet tone "Now, shall we resume?"

Back inside the Tethe'alla Base, Lloyd and Yuan were still in the middle of their battle. Yuan was using a lot more magic than he did before, since that was the only way to keep Lloyd from approaching him. The Rheairds Hangar was being torn apart piece by piece, but the Rheiards themselves were thankfully unharmed. With the smoke flying up from the fireballs and lightning bolts that Yuan fired off, it was hard to keep track of Lloyd's quickened movements.

Lloyd runs through the smoke as Yuan angrily fires a lightning bolt at the boy's head and raising his sword up to defend himself for a forward strike. But Lloyd finally does something different and falls into a forward slide along the little bit of even ground in front of him while swinging his swords at Yuan's legs. The armor thankfully prevents the legs from being completely cut down, but Lloyd manages to get deep enough to strike the tendons and force Yuan onto his knees in an instant.

Lloyd kicks back onto his feet and turns around to look at Yuan, who can no longer get onto his feet thanks to the damage to his legs. And with Botta unconscious this wound won't be healed up any time soon. Yuan lets go of his sword and punches the ground beside him, cursing out in a disbelieving tone "…Impossible! How could I lose?!"

The man then glances back behind himself, glaring at Lloyd's right hand and commenting as he notices a particular gleam coming from the Exsphere "Lloyd, your Exsphere…to think that it's really evolving." The defeated words of the man puzzle Lloyd, who sheathes his blades and raises his hand up while commenting "My Exsphere?"

The entire area then starts trembling without any explanation, puzzling everyone involved minus Yuan, who looks at Lloyd while thinking _"Don't tell me that you…" _

"Lloyd! We need to take the Rheairds, now!" Sheena expresses urgency in their departure, and because of Lloyd still focusing on the matter of his Exsphere he says hesitantly "A…All right."

The four run past Yuan and head for the Rheairds. Jumping on them, Lloyd tries to figure out how to get eight of them out at the same time. After some brief assistance from Raine, the group launches off the ground and line up in a straight row. In a matter of seconds, the eight Rheairds are launched right out of the Renegade Base via the tunnel.

After the group departs, the tremors awaken Botta, who gets back onto his feet upon noticing Yuan's weakened state. The half-elf quickly casts First Aid to heal the man's wounds, and as Yuan slowly rises upward Botta expresses urgently "Sir! This earthquake! Could a mana link have been broken?"

Yuan groans in pain and comments in a calm tone "Possibly. Investigate the cause of this earthquake immediately! …But do not worry about the Rheairds. So long as our little friend tells us where they are at, we can retrieve them at any time."

Back outside the base, Riku breaks away from a clash of swords with Kratos, and though he had exhausted himself a little more he managed to deal a little bit of damage to the warrior's body. But then the tremor hits the area, and Kratos looks around in a puzzled manner while commenting "This sensation…No, it's already beginning."

Riku brushes off Kratos' comments and dispels his sword while smiling, saying on a completely different subject than what the Cruxis warrior was currently on "Looks like we'll have to continue this another time Kratos!"

The teenage Overlord swings his hands out behind his body and summons forth three spheres of air around Zelos, Presea and Regal's bodies as Kratos turns to look at him. "Hang on guys, this might be a bumpy ride!"

Riku launches up into the air while carrying his three allies behind him. Zelos lets out a surprised exclamation while Presea and Regal remain relatively calm in spite of how rapidly their hearts beat. Kratos glances up at the teenage Overlord's movements, noticing the presence of the Rheairds in the sky just a moment later and commenting quietly to himself "…So they're off to rescue the Chosen. Hmmm…I suppose my work is done here for now." Turning away from the sky, Kratos takes a few steps before flying off with the help of his wings.

In the air, Riku catches up with Lloyd and the others on the Rheairds and carefully drops Zelos, Presea and Regal off on the empty machines, using a little bit of wind to keep them stable until they are back to normal. "Well, seems grabbing the Rheiards went off without a hitch!" Riku exclaims to Lloyd as he flies by him.

The swordsman glances off to the left and says loudly "We ran into Yuan, but that didn't distract us for long! …Say, why do you look kind of beat up?" Lloyd notices Riku's weakened state, but the teenage Overlord quickly dodges the matter of Kratos' appearance by saying "Never mind me, Zelos, Presea and Regal need a quick heal. Raine! Can you use some of your magic on them real quick?!"

The professor hears Riku from behind her Rheaird, and after pulling her staff out with one hand she breaks away from the front and goes for the injured three. Zelos is happy to receive a hand from the lovely half-elf, and he says in a suave tone "Heheh, thank you for the help my lovely Raine…After our run-in with Kratos, I could use it."

Riku flinches in shock in spite of prior experiences telling him that the one thing that could never be stopped is Zelos' big mouth, while Lloyd glances back at Zelos and asks "What?! Kratos was at the Renegade Base?!"

The teenage Overlord quickly tries to run damage control on the situation by reassuring Lloyd "Don't worry about it, he wasn't out to stop us. Zelos tried to pick a fight with him and got us involved."

"What? That's not-" Before Zelos finishes his sentence, Riku casually flicks his right hand towards his body and slaps Zelos aside the face with a hand made of wind, which is enough to quiet him for the time being.

Lloyd looks back on ahead and says in a puzzled tone "Kratos…What are you up to?" Riku says in response "Don't worry about it. Right now, we need to find Colette." Lloyd nods his head in agreement, and with the Renegade Base far behind them the group begins to scour the skies in search of the missing Chosen…

_Next Time: Rodyle's Scheme_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: The Iron Will**

With the Rheairds in their possession, the group spent the next hour or so trying to find their lost pal Colette. They stuck close together, using their many eyes to scope out the grand land of Tethe'alla to the best of their capabilities. In the midst of looking over the land, a couple of the more impressionable members were fascinated by how beautiful Tethe'alla looked this high up in the sky.

"Wow…I never would have suspected that flying would be this much fun!" Genis proclaims in joy as they pass over Meltokio, which looks barely visible from this high up. Lloyd on the other hand was never focused on the ground, for he was instead trying to pay attention to the sky above as well as he could for any signs of the dragons that carried his friend away.

"…Hmm…" Letting out a melancholy sigh, Lloyd's emotions are picked up by Riku, who was flying by himself beside him with his body extended horizontally. The teenage Overlord turns to face Lloyd and asks "Thinking about Colette?"

"Yeah…I hope she isn't being hurt by that damn Rodyle." Lloyd states in response. "Knowing his involvement in the Angelus Project, he's probably just looking to take her Cruxis Crystal. Her body shouldn't be harmed if it's removed correctly, right?"

"…I don't know, Cruxis Crystals are different from Exspheres." Lloyd sounds rather depressed thanks to Riku bringing up that line of thought, and the teenage Overlord diverts these emotions by lifting his body upright and turning back towards the rest of the group and proclaiming "Hey! Does anyone here know anything about dragons?"

Regal replies to Riku's inquiry with "From what I recall, dragons in Tethe'alla have a tendency to live either in caves or aerial nests. Considering how Rodyle's dragons operated, looking for the nest would be our best bet."

"Do the nests move at all?" Lloyd asks, finding a little more hope in their otherwise fruitless search thanks to Regal's information. Regal shakes his head and replies "The nests stay still once they are built. Also, dragons tend to not build near populated civilizations, so looking near Meltokio will get us nowhere."

"I don't even know why we're near here anyways. Didn't Rodyle take Colette east from Ozette?" Genis reminds Lloyd of what he noticed from Colette's kidnapping, and the boy slaps the front of his head before looking forward and saying "You're right Genis!"

Performing a swift U-Turn, Lloyd is quickly followed by the rest of his friends towards the east half of Tethe'alla while he says happily "Thanks Regal, that's we need to find Colette!" Regal grins halfway and says "I'm glad to help…"

Zelos glances over at Regal suspiciously, once more the knowledge he shows clicking more gears together inside of his head. "Hmmm…I think I know who you are, Regal…" Zelos quietly comments to himself as he leans back in his Rheairds and folds his arms behind his head.

"Zelos, put your hands back on the handles before you go hurtling towards the ocean!" Sheena blurts out in sheer disbelief towards the Chosen's recklessness. The man glances over at the ninja and says nonchalantly "Don't worry about me my voluptuous darling, it'd take quite a lot to budge the great Ze-"

Suddenly, a hefty gust of wind blows pasts the right side of Zelos' body, causing him to nearly fall off the Rheaird before he collects himself and grabs back onto the handles while proclaiming in a prolonged manner "LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!"

While his heart skips a couple beats, Riku floats up to the left of him while whistling quietly to himself. Zelos glances furiously at the boy and asks "You trying to kill me?!" The teenage Overlord replies to the man's declaration by staring at him slyly and whispering "Not at all…But you should be a little more careful with your life there Zelos."

"Heh, I don't need you telling me that." Zelos brushes off Riku's concerns and looks back on ahead, while the teenage simply sighs and says to himself "Why did I even bother…"

Focusing back on the current task, the group flies east, paying close attention to the skies for anything resembling a nest. It takes them fifteen minutes before they fly past the icy land mass and notice a large mass of fog circling around a large wooden spite connected to the bottom of a gigantic stony nest. "There it is!" Lloyd, with all the enthusiasm taking precedence in his voice, increases the speed of his Rheairds to zoom straight towards the nest. Everyone else follows suit one after the other, and they breech the fog to head for the top of the nest.

With the sky darkening due to the fog blocking most of the sunlight, Lloyd looks down at the center of the nest and notices a large crystallized orange cage glowing prominently. Colette stands in the center of it, her hands and feet bound together by mythical chains as her wings are forcibly kept out by the cage. Lloyd flies the Rheaird overhead before leaping straight off in a reckless manner, his feet landing and skidding along the ground as he kneels down out of recoil.

The wet ground almost slips him up as he ends his slide about ten feet from Colette, who hears Lloyd's descent and proclaims in a happy and shocked manner "Lloyd!" As everyone else takes the more sensible approach and lands their Rheiards close to the edge of the nest before getting off, Lloyd looks at Colette and proclaims "Colette, are you ok?!"

Lloyd pulls out one of his swords and looks ready to cut the cage down, but the girl blurts out in a panic "No! Lloyd, stay away! It's a trap!" Colette's reaction puzzles Lloyd, who blinks twice before saying "What? What're you talking about?"

Suddenly, Rodyle walks into view from the left side of Colette's cage, putting a worried expression on Colette's face with his mere presence. The Desian glances at the group and cracks an unusual smile, which does nothing more than set off Presea's murderous instincts. The girl immediately whips out her axe and proclaims "You will pay for using me! Let Colette go!" She leaps straight at the Desian without concern, bringing her axe down with all of her might atop the man's head.

But the second before he's struck down, his visage disappears from view, as though the man was not there at all. Presea is left dumbstruck in her anger as Raine comments in a surprised tone of voice "An illusion?" Rodyle's visage reappears off to the left of Lloyd, but though the boy's eyes were on him the man just glanced at the group without a care and started bursting into laughter at the futility of their presence before saying "Hahahaha! You can have that worthless Chosen! Now I understand why Lord Yggdrasill left her alone."

As Presea pulls her axe from the cracked ground, both her and Lloyd turn to face Rodyle, with the boy asking in puzzled disbelief "Worthless?!" Rodyle smirks without glancing at the boy, explaining to everyone involved "Absolutely. A sinful Chosen like that is completely useless for my Mana Cannon. She can't save the world. She can't merge with Martel. She even puts her friends in danger. Hmph, what a pathetic Chosen."

Rodyle's piercing insults make Colette shiver in sorrow while Lloyd's right fist tightens in anger. But surprisingly it is Presea who stands up for the Chosen of Sylvarant by saying in a blunt tone to the callous Desian "Stop blaming Colette for things she did not do!"

This is followed up by Regal walking past the group, standing before the visage of Rodyle and saying in the calmest of anger "Indeed. It is enough that I alone bear the weight of sin. How dare you call Colette such things when you and I stand here as the epitome of sin! I will take you down to hell with me!"

Rodyle glances at Regal, finding humor in the man's embittered words as he gestures at him and says in a delighted tone "Take me to hell? You inferior beings and your silly jokes." The Desian's careless remarks were starting to get on everyone else's nerves, and though he was but an illusion on this desolate nest they began to close-in on him. Colette, still fearing for her friend's safety, blurts out "Everyone, run, now!"

Rodyle, having had enough fun with the group, raises one hand towards his mouth and lets out a piercing whistle with the help of his fingers, yelling out in an excited tone "Now, my darling pets! Feed on the flesh of these wretched beings!"

Multiple streams of light then begin to rise out of Rodyle's body, causing his illusion to dispel from sight in mere seconds, much to the disdain of both Regal and Presea. His departure is followed up by the sound of powerful wings flapping in the distance, which grows louder with each passing second until the group collectively turns their heads to see a swarm of approximately eight winged dragons heading their way.

Colette looks at the dragons with a heavily worried expression, and begs of her friends soon after "Don't try to fight them! Run!" But as Presea explains as she stands beside the cage "Winged dragon, a subspecies of dragon. Carnivorous. Excels at the pursuit and capture of prey. The probability of successful evasion on this small platform is one percent."

"Give me a break! I'll pass on dying, thanks!" Zelos comments in a flustered tone, to which Riku ends up glaring at him for considering his earlier behavior. Lloyd draws out both of his swords and stares bravely up at the gathered dragons, saying in the utmost confident tone "Then all we have to do is defeat them before they can kill us!"

Regal nods his head in agreement and says "Indeed. I have no intention of becoming a part of the food chain without a fight." With everyone preparing for battle, Colette closes her eyelids and appears frightened by what was about to unfold, but Lloyd says to her in a reassuring voice "Colette…Don't lose hope. We will get you out of here alive!"

As he says those words, the first two dragons dive straight at the group. But before they can reach the ground of the nest Riku leaps into the air and summons forth whips of lightning from his palms that he uses to grab the dragons by the neck and jerk their bodies backwards against their will. The teenage Overlord pulls the dragons through the rest of the pack, forcing them all to split to avoid collision while he proclaims quickly "I'll take care of these two! Worry about the rest!"

As Riku descends straight off the side of the nest with the two dragons still in tow, the rest of the group collects themselves to battle against the remaining six beasts. Below the nest, the teenage Overlord pauses in place and throws the two dragons towards the water. But even with the wind taken out of their mouths from the neck choke they quickly recover and roar angrily at Riku's presence.

"_Fighting dragons again…This brings back memories." _Riku thinks nostalgic thoughts, which simultaneously makes him remember Takashi and Sodenko, whose voices he hadn't heard in what felt like an eternity. Igniting both of his fists with flames, Riku comments "I'll find out how to talk to you two again…Just you wait!"

Riku dives down at the two dragons as both open their jaws and fire out a stream of pure, slicing wind at the boy to try and cut him down rapidly. But with his manipulation of the air the teenage Overlord bends the element around his body harmlessly before reaching the dragon on the left, at which point he punches the beast square in the side of the face. The scales provide enough defense to prevent an attack on the flesh, but the head is still jerked to the left against with the bones cracking slightly in the neck.

Riku then stops flying and grabs the creature around the neck with his burned out left hand, turning his other arm towards the second beast and sending out all the built up flames out as a medium-sized orb that collides with the creature's eyes and creates a large cloud of smog from the impact to blind the eyes with a simultaneous burning sensation. The teenage Overlord then focuses his attention on the other dragon.

Using all of his strength, Riku flies towards the foundation of the nest and slams the dragon straight into it with a forward thrust of his left arm, sending the creature through ten feet of solid rock as he lets go. As the dragon lies in the shapeless indent, the rocks loosened from the impact slowly fall upon it's scaly body, leading to it being trapped a little longer than it wanted.

As Riku floated outside the indent, he looked at the dragon and felt something odd present in it's body. An electronic device of sorts was grafted into the creature's head and connected to the eyes, and even after being battered in the head twice it was still active. _"…Rodyle's watching us…" _As the teenage Overlord comments on this endeavor he raises his right hand and begins charging electricity in the palm to short-circuit the device.

But the other dragon has other plans, as with the boy distracted by his modified brother he swoops straight at him and slams his talons into his backside, giving Riku only a bare second to try and harden his skin with diamond only for the realization that he cannot do so to strike him just as the beast slams him into the wall beside the dent. The dragon uses it's talons to repeat this action twice more as it roars and flaps it's wings rapidly.

The dragon pulls it's talons away from Riku's back, allowing the teenage Overlord to peel away his body from the crumbling structure as it opens it's mouth to prepare another stream of slicing wind. The teenage Overlord turns around with his back bleeding out slightly and holds his right hand up, waiting for the wind to be unleashed upon him, which allows him to then use his powers to collapse the stream of wind into a sphere in front of his palm.

Once he's gathered all the wind, Riku thrusts his hand out, unleashing a gigantic whirlwind that consumes the dragon and rips apart the fog around eastern part of the nest. The beast, even though it was affiliated with the wind element, couldn't stand up to the furious slices within the whirlwind that consumed his body, which left it trapped in place with it's scales being ripped off rapidly until it was left as nothing more than unbound flesh.

Not even the wings of the beast were left intact, and the beast fell towards the water while letting out one last roar. Riku lowers his hand while staring coldly down at the falling dragon, but then his body grimaces against it's will and he looks a little more weakened then one would expect him to be. "…I…I can't believe that exhausted me…Kratos is right, I am weaker…"

As he limps there in an attempt to catch his breath, the dragon he pushed into the nest's structure finally pulls itself out and flies straight at the boy, bringing it's mouth open and trying to chomp down on the boy's flesh, but Riku swings around and summons his sword to slash at the creature's upper jaw with most of his remaining strength. The impact of the blade with the scales of the creature send him crashing back into the nest skull first. The creature limps inside of the stone structure, killed by severe head trauma.

The dragon is pulled out of the stones by it's own weight, but before it falls into the water Riku grabs it by the head with it's left hand and swiftly uses electricity to short-circuit the device Rodyle was using to observe him while at the same time dealing with any of the devices in the remainder of the dragons. He then lets the beast go and says "…I need to rest a bit…Good thing I know the others can handle the remaining dragons…" He then grabs onto his left arm and floats quietly in place, breathing in and out to regain his energy.

Atop the nest, the group has felled one dragon, but in doing so they ended up greatly split up across the arena. One of the dragons swoop down at Lloyd, forcing the boy to leap to the right and roll across the ground to avoid being picked up by it's lashing talons. The creature lashes it's talons against the ground before landing completely and swerving itself towards the boy as he gets back on his feet.

The dragon swipes it's tail against the ground and flaps it's wings to send a gust of wind at the ground, creating a swirling circle of air that begins to rise up in the form of a tornado around Lloyd. The boy leaps forward past the wind and goes for the dragon's vulnerable chest, slashing at it twice only for the creature to lower it's head and crashing it's horns against his prey's chest, sending him flying back in recoil into the tornado, where he's thrown around inside of it and cut up by the magical effect of it.

Lloyd is then thrown out of the tornado, his clothes torn up slightly as he lands on his back in front of Colette's cage. "Lloyd!" The girl proclaims in fright as her friend lets out a pained cry upon impact. She tries to budge forward, forgetting that she is bound in place, and feels pain in her wrists and ankles. Lloyd rises to his feet with the help of his swords as the dragon turns around to look at his prey and snarl.

Colette begs of Lloyd "Please Lloyd…Don't do this for me! Just save yourself…" Lloyd smirks and says gently "Dummy…I'm not going anywhere, you know that. Stop trying to sacrifice yourself already."

Lloyd then runs at the dragon in front of him, anticipating the creature's movements so he can lift his swords up and use an X-Cross slash to deflect the head charge of the dragon before holding both of his swords out and running towards the now exposed underside, where he then jumps up while swinging both swords upward in an arc, cutting through the flesh in two separate slits, thus making it so the downward slashes cut through the flesh and make blood spurt out of the wounds.

Most of the blood misses Lloyd as he lands on the ground and breaks into a run past the dragon's legs, and then the beast stumbles over a bit due to weakness caused by lost of blood. While the dragon was lowered, Lloyd turns around and leaps atop the creature's back, running along to the center and looking for a vulnerable part of his skin underneath the scales, where he then raises both of his swords up with points aimed at the back.

Letting out a battle cry, Lloyd stabs both swords diagonally into the creature's skin, puncturing through to the heart and after the dragon lets out a brief and painful roar the beast goes silent and collapses right onto it's gut with Lloyd holding on until it's done falling. The boy then pulls his swords out with blood dripping from the tips, and after shaking them off he looks at Colette with a bright smile and reassures her "We're getting you out of here, that's a promise, ok?"

Colette, touched by Lloyd's vows in spite of how foolish she has been throughout this journey, lets out a single tear from her right cheek while saying quietly "…Lloyd…thank you…" The boy then glances off to the left as another roar echoes his way. He jumps to the right and holds his swords up to block a stream of wind from the creature's mouth, but ends up being sent crashing into the ground feet first, the speed making the damage he takes increase a bit in his legs as his bones crunch down from the impact.

On another part of the nest, Sheena is busy confronting another dragon with the help of her Summon Spirits. In particular, she is working in conjunction with Efreet to tackle the mighty beast. The creature uses his wind bases abilities to blow away the Summon Spirits' flames when it tries to use them as projectiles, but it only allows Efreet to charge forth and throw a heavy punch to the dragon's gut.

Sheena then leaps into the air atop Efreet's back, running across it and then the arm to get close to the dragon's mouth, where she then throws a couple seals inside the throat as the creature lets out gasp of tired breath. In a couple seconds the seals explode, blowing the neck up entirely and launching the head through the air while the body crumbles onto the ground. Sheena then backflips off of Efreet and looks off to the right, noticing Lloyd having a bit of trouble with his second dragon, which leads to her drawing out a few more seals while proclaiming "Come Efreet, lets help Lloyd!"

As the ninja dashes off to help her friend, Presea and Regal can be seen still fighting one of their dragons. With how Presea fights, it's up to Regal to ground the creature with his hard-hitting method of combat. The man stamps his feet into the ground while holding his shackled arms up to block the creature's stream of wind, and after he was done bracing himself he stands up and leaps up while focusing all of his strength into his right foot to deliver a hefty blow to the exact center of the dragon's chest.

The creature's rib cage shatters slightly, with the broken bones poking into his lungs and taking the air out of his body for a moment and causing the creature to crash into the ground, which only furthers the depth the bone shards pierce into the lung. While the dragon was down, Presea leaps into the air and holds her axe high above her head, bringing it down upon the center of the creature's back to split through the scales and cleave the heart in half.

Presea pulls her axe out and flips it around to get rid of most of the blood, and after looking at Regal she says "That was…good. Thank you Regal." The man nods his head in an appreciative manner and replies "Your proficiency with the axe made it all possible."

After the two share a compliment, they are disrupted by another dragon crashing down to the right of them. The beast was completely lifeless, and the one responsible for it's demise was Zelos, who smoothly walks up to Presea and Regal while brushing his hands together and saying "I guess being a creepy lunatic is all that guy is good at." In a jovial tone of voice.

Presea and Regal glare at his attempt to be nonchalantly friendly towards them considering prior events, but the Chosen tilts his head in a puzzled manner and says "What? What'd I do?" Presea and Regal are distracted from this matter by the roar of another dragon, particularly the one Lloyd and Sheena are fighting. Zelos dashes towards it with Presea joining soon afterwards, but Regal steps away from the battle for a moment to look at the dragon Zelos dealt with.

With his keen eye, Regal notices that the creature was missing a large chunk of flesh from it's back, but the strange thing about this was that it was very cleanly removed without any sign of burns or blood. Regal arches his eyebrows suspiciously at this matter, and with his mind recalling Zelos' earlier departure in the Renegade Base the man knew he'd eventually have to confront the Chosen on his suspicions. But for now, Regal goes to join his other allies to finish off the remaining dragons.

Speaking of which, the only two members of the group were Raine and Genis, who were perfectly in sync with their spells as they fended off the dragon. The dragon could only takes the enhanced fireballs Genis threw at him from his kendama without moving closer to his prey. But while they were able to hold the beast off, they weren't making much progress in killing the creature. Thus, Genis says to his sister enthusiastically "Sis, lets try out our new spell!"

Raine calmly replies as she extends her staff out diagonally in front of her body "Keep your magic synchronized with my own, Genis. Remember what I taught you." Genis nods his head and holds his kendama at a cross with the center of Raine's staff, and with the two creating a large, sparkling glyphic circle around both of their bodies they channel their magical energies together in the form of a growing orb of light in-between both of their spell casting weapons.

"Prism Stars!" The two proclaim in unison, and with the magical orb bursting outward the dragon is suddenly bombarded with multiple strings of gliding pearl-colored stars. The beast is consumed by the swarm of stars for five seconds as Genis and Raine continue to sync their magical energies together, and upon being overwhelmed by the stars the dragon glows brightly and swiftly explodes before it can even roar. It was a clean explosion, thankfully.

Genis brushes one finger against his nose while saying confidently "Hehe, that was easy." Raine nods her head and says "You did a good job Genis, but next time try and lower your weapon a bit. You looked a little off." The half-elf boy sighs at the remark.

After this it was only a matter of time before the remaining dragons were dealt with, and with these heavy corpses lying around the battlefield Lloyd breathes in and out with his arms hanging low and his swords sheathed back in his hilts. "We…We did it…" He comments in a exhausted but happy tone.

Colette looks out of the cage, surprised to see that everyone has triumphed over the dragons, but as she tries to crack a smile the ground below her feet starts to tremble violently. The Chosen looks down and notices a heavy field of orange energy spreading out around her cage. Colette squints her eyes and blurts out in a melancholy tone "No…It's too late!"

As everyone turns towards Colette's cage and notices the energy spreading, Regal glances down and says in a puzzled tone "What is this ominous light that threatens to engulf us?!" He suddenly finds his body paralyzed along with the rest of the group. "Argh…I can't move!" Sheena exclaims as she tries her hardest to budge.

Genis observes both the light and the cage, commenting in a blunt tone "It's Colette! The mana from Colette's body is flowing out towards us!" Raine adds her own knowledge to the mix by stating "It's cause by that magic circle beneath her!"

Lloyd, failing to understand the gravity of the situation, begs of Colette "Colette, get out of there!" The Chosen continues to close her eyelids while whimpering out to Lloyd "I can't…I'm chain to it…I…I can't move." Feeling saddened for what she has done, the girl then starts to cry as she says to her friends "I'm sorry. I'm just a Chosen who couldn't even save her friends, much less the world…Maybe I'm just like Rodyle said, 'a pathetic Chosen'…"

"…No, Colette, don't delude yourself." Presea's voice breaks through Colette's self-doubt, and the Chosen lifts her head up to see the girl using all of her strength to trudge through the mana field one inch at a time towards the cage. Bit by bit Presea grows closer, and she starts to lift her axe up as the cage draws within range. The tremors start to worsen, but once the girl stands before the cage she grits her teeth and says "What's wrong is this system that demands the sacrifice of the Chosen!"

With all of her might, Presea raises her axe into the air and brings it down upon the side of the cage. The cage fights back against this attack, unleashing a heavy sensation of mana through Presea's body, causing her to yell out in excruciating pain as she grinds the blade of her axe against the cage. The struggle is worth it though, as to the shock and joy of all involved, the cage shatters apart along with the binds on Colette's arms and legs.

The mana field still exists due to Colette standing on the circle, but that was no one's concern at the moment as the exhausted Presea starts to collapse onto her knees. It was only thanks to her axe that she was able to remain mostly upright. Colette, now letting out tears of happiness instead of sorrow, looks at Presea and says to her gently "Presea…Thank you…"

But the celebration of Colette's release would have to wait, for as the group smiles joyfully the tremors begin to increase tremendously. Zelos wiggles about as he comments "Whoa, what's up with the ground now?!"

No one had an answer to what was happening, so Lloyd proclaimed in an urgent tone "We have to get out of here!" Colette looks at her friend, feeling like a complete idiot for not believing in his vows all this time as she says to him "Lloyd…I…"

But Lloyd doesn't care about that as he proclaims to her "Colette, you have to live!" The Chosen recognizes what a fool she has been as she cracks a smile, nods her head and says in response "…I know…"

As the tremors grow even worse, Riku flies up to the top of the nest to quickly proclaim to everyone "The nest is collapsing! We need to get out of here, now!" In response to this bit of news, Raine glances up at the teenage Overlord and asks "Riku, can you carry Presea to her Rheaird?"

The teenage Overlord nods his head and swoops down to pick the girl up while everyone else makes a run for the Rheairds. After calling Lloyd's back to the group, everyone gets on and rides off as the nest begins to crumble apart and fall towards the sea. Riku makes an effort to ride on Presea's Rheaird for now, keeping the girl resting on his lap with a little wind based support until they can get to safe land.

Everyone only glances back for a moment at the descending nest, watching as it explodes in a burst of light as it collides with the ocean's surface. Then they focus back on ahead, and quickly go for the closest forest below their view. Landing in the middle of it with the Rheairds, everyone gets off and decides to collect themselves after that battle.

Riku gently lowers Presea onto the ground so Raine can help her out with healing artes, while Lloyd looks at everyone and asks "Are we all okay?" Zelos enthusiastically proclaims "I'm still alive!"

Sheena, too exhausted to groan at Zelos' attempt to grab attention, says to Lloyd "It looks like everyone's all right." With that brief matter out of the way, Regal thought it necessary to bring to everyone's attention "But for what purpose did that Rodyle character kidnap Colette?"

Colette is the one who has to answer this question as she looks at the group and explains "He sia he needed a Cruxis Crystal in order to control the Mana Cannon. But apparently, mine didn't work…"

The name of the device Rodyle wished to use sounded both familiar and yet bizarre to Lloyd, so he glances at Colette and says for further explanation "Mana Cannon?"

But it is Raine who reminds Lloyd of the device as she explains "Pietro, the man we save in Hima, also spoke of this Mana Cannon." But this reminder only served to make Lloyd think even more, especially since no one here could explain what the device is.

Genis, who was focused only on Raine healing Presea, notices the girl twitch in an awakening manner and comments "Presea's waking up!" Weakly lifting her head up, Presea immediately focuses her eyes on Colette while grumbling out quietly "Colette…are you…okay?"

Colette responds enthusiastically with "Yes, thanks to you!" With the Chosen standing there with her hands held together and her brimming smile on her face, Presea can only murmur to herself before her expression changes to that of a glowing, rosy smile. Raine backs away from the girl as everyone looks at her in joyous relief.

"Presea smiled!" Lloyd commented, while Regal glances at Presea and whispers to himself as a sharp jolt of nostalgia goes through his heart "…She resembles her, just as I thought."

"…Heh, it's smiles like that that make these journeys of mine worth it." Riku adds in his own thoughts to the mix, which then leads to Zelos suavely saying to the group "Ok, now that my cute little Presea has smiled, it's a good time to start thinking about the next step."

"Yeah, we got Colette back, so what now?" Genis asks. Lloyd enthusiastically pumps one fist into the air and proclaims "What else? We're going to separate the two worlds!"

Zelos brushes his right hand against the air before resting it on the handle of his sword and saying "So we're gonna form pacts with the Summon Spirits of both worlds." Sheena points at herself and says afterwards "This is where I come in, right? Considering we can't head back to Sylvarant yet, how about we start with Gnome? He should be pretty close by considering where we landed."

Lloyd nods his head, but before making a full decision he turns towards the professor, who was staring closely at Colette, and asks her "Professor? Is that okay with you?" Raine glances back at Lloyd and blinks a couple times before saying "…Huh? Umm…Yes, sure. That's fine."

Even Lloyd notices something odd with the Professor's behavior and asks her "Hey, Professor? Is something wrong?" But Raine turns to Lloyd and says in a reassuring voice "It's nothing. Anyways, we should get going."

"Well…I think we should probably relax a bit. It's not like Cruxis is going to find us out here in this random forest." Riku points out, thinking specifically about Presea's condition as he mentions that.

"I'm…fine…" Presea picks up on what Riku was thinking of and starts to rise to her feet. "Raine healed me…I should be fine once we get to Gnome's temple."

"If you say so Presea. Any objections from anyone else?" Riku asks as he looks around at the rest of the group. "We should take care of the pacts as soon as possible before Cruxis tries to stop us." Lloyd states in response.

The teenage Overlord nods his head in agreement, and the group goes back onto their Rheairds without another word. But as they group up, Raine looks at Riku's back and notices holes in his shirt created by one of the dragons, but surprisingly no blood on his skin. The half-elf lets out a light groan that Riku picks up, and as he turns towards her he asks "Something the matter Raine?" He was unaware of the marks in his shirt by the way he spoke.

"…Never mind." Raine retracts her question for the time being, deciding that she wanted to figure out this matter all on her own. Riku shrugs his shoulders and turns back ahead, and he takes off along with the rest of the Rheairds mere seconds later. The half-elf glares back at Riku's backside and says to herself "Riku…Just how much are you hiding from us?" The Rheairds take off, leaving the half-elf professor with her concerns as they head-off to Gnome's domain…

_Next Time: The Jolly Spirit_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Gnome**

With Colette freed from Rodyle's cruel grasp, the group traveled in their Rheairds in pursuit of the remaining Summon Spirits in Tethe'alla. Lloyd looks at Sheena and asks her "So where is Gnome's domain?" The ninja has to take a moment to recollect her information on the Summon Spirit before replying "His temple should be north of Meltokio. It shouldn't be too hard to find from up here."

"Anything we should know before going there?" Raine asks afterwards. "Well, there are gnomes in the temple." Sheena's explanation is mixed up by the wind blowing, and the aloof Colette replies "Well of course he is, that's why we're going there."

Lloyd's eyes narrow as he stares at Colette and says to her "Ummm, Colette. She said 'Gnomes', not 'Gnome'." Colette looks at Lloyd and tilts her head while saying "Huh? But isn't there only one Summon Spirit per element?"

"…Sheena was talking about the species, not the Summon Spirit." Genis lets out a groan before he points this out to his friend. "Even I knew that Colette. We're you out of class that day?" Lloyd replies in an inquiring tone.

"Hmm…I don't know." Colette replies in an aloof tone as she pokes her eyes towards the sky and goes deep in thought. Lloyd looks back on ahead and sighs while saying "…Glad to have you back Colette."

The group flies off past Meltokio, heading towards the rocky gorge near the northern half of the continent to try and seek out Gnome's temple. Descending from the clouds up high, the group takes their Rheairds close to the ground and head for the very end of the gorge, where they find the only cave entrance within the area. "Lets try looking there." Lloyd says.

After landing the Rheairds a safe distance away from the edge of the gorge, the group place their feet on the ground and head towards the cave. Immediately upon looking at the deep chasms and barely stable cliff sides, Lloyd looks at Zelos and says "How did any of your Chosen complete these temples? Nothing in Sylvarant looked as bad as this and Temple of Lightning."

Zelos lifts his head up high with a smile on his face and says "Well when you have Chosen that are bred to such perfect specimens of life such as myself, is it any wonder that we've succeeded even in places like this?"

Lloyd narrows his eyelids again and pauses in place, glancing at Genis as the half-elf says to him "Big talk from someone who hasn't gone on a Journey of Regeneration." Even though he whispered, Zelos still overheard him and glanced back while saying "Hey hey, I could easily handle these temples on my own!"

"With your hands held behind your head?" Lloyd asks. Zelos faces the boy fully and nods his head while stating boldly "You could even blindfold me and I'd be able to handle it!"

Sheena, who was listening in one the conversation, stands beside Zelos and glances at Lloyd while saying in a jovial tone "Well, why should we deny him the chance to prove himself? Let him handle the Temple of Earth on his own."

Zelos flinches, thinking that Sheena was being serious considering the track-record of her remarks regarding him. He turns towards her and comments "Whoa now, lets not get ahead of ourselves here! I can't make a pact with Gnome!"

"Of course you can't. You can just handle him all on your own, and then I'll make the pact afterwards." Sheena replies. Zelos looks at her in disbelief and says "This isn't funny darling, now cut the humor and start acting serious."

The Lloyd and Sheena choose to end the matter with silence as they continue back through the cave, leaving Zelos to whisper out "…Ummm, guys? Hello?" As he's left puzzled by whether they were serious or not, Sheena and Lloyd glance at each other and let out a light chuckle, while Riku glances back and thinks to himself _"He brings it upon himself, but I can't help but feel sorry for him at times…"_

After a few minutes traversing the inside of the cave, the group comes across another Sorcerer's Ring altar. Lloyd excitedly places his right hand into the light of the altar and pulls it away as the ring absorbs a new ability. Raine says to Lloyd as he looks far too eager to just activate the ring "Careful Lloyd, think about what the ring can do inside of a cave."

"Don't worry professor, I'm not going to blow-up my face." Lloyd says as he points the ring in front of his body and activates it with a thought. The ground around the group starts to tremble rapidly, and considering the condition of the caves most of their hearts skip a beat until the tremor ends a couple seconds later.

After hearing the dying out crumbling of the rocks around their feet, Lloyd looks at the ring with a wide-eyed glare and says "Whoa!" as his expression creaks into a smile. Genis clasps one hand on his chest and breaths in and out while saying "That was…startling!"

Raine, composing herself after the earthquake born from the Sorcerer's Ring, says to the group "We should be able to change the shape of the temple with this…Just remember not to go crazy with it Lloyd."

"Yes, use it on small groups of rocks…And make sure none of us are near the edge of the chasm." Regal points out, recalling how eager Lloyd was to use the explosive effect back in the mines. Lloyd saying "I know, I know" was not a reassuring remark for the shackled man.

The group proceeds onwards, using the ring to collapse a wall of rocks into the chasm so they can approach a bridge close by. But standing in the middle of the bridge was a creature that was just tall enough to reach below Colette's kneecap. It had no nose, no mouth, and definitely no fingers on his stub-like arms. It's clothes were rather archaic, but that was really the only interesting feature on this smooth skinned creature.

"Hey, you losers can't just barge in here!" The creature states in a cutesy little voice that tried sounding a little bit tough. Everyone takes pause at the front of the bridge and glance down at him, with Colette kneeling down and letting out a joyous "Awwww…" before she clenches her hands below her chin and says "It's so adorable!"

"Hey hey toots, who you callin' adorable?! You wanna piss me off with an insult like that?!" The creature pumps his stubby arm into the air and tries to proclaim his toughness, but save for Colette everyone just glances at him with a dull expression on their faces.

Lloyd then glances back at Raine with a look of disappointment and says "Ummm…This is a gnome?" The half-elf nods her head and replies "Unfortunately, yes."

Raine then steps forward and says to the gnome "We have business further on ahead. Will you please let us through?" The gnome's face turns a slight but prominent shade of red while exclaiming "You barge into our home and demand passage over MY BRIDGE?! Oh that does it, you are just looking for a fight with me!"

The gnome puts his "fists" up and pumps them at the group which makes Raine closes her eyelids and let out an embarrassed sigh before asking "…Is there anything we can do to change your mind?"

"No way! Big Brother told me to guard this bridge from any intruders! If you want to pass SOOOO badly, then get Big Brother to tell me to stand down or fight me off, punks!" The gnome proclaims. His bravado was getting on everyone but Riku's nerves. Zelos pounded his fist against his hand and grimaced at the gnome and said "Oh I'll be more than glad to kick you off the bridge you little garden statue!"

The teenage Overlord releases a cold sweat and thinks to himself _"Ah darn it, we forgot to meet the gnome in the Toize Valley Mine! I can't believe I forgot such a minor detail!" _While the group was discussing the matter of the gnome blocking their way, Riku slowly slipped out of sight towards the exit of the Temple of Earth.

"Zelos, you can't kick a gnome into the chasm. They're an endangered species." Sheena points out to the eager Chosen. Zelos glances at the ninja and points out "With how arrogant they are, I'm not surprised!"

"…And that doesn't remind you of anyone?" Sheena nonchalantly points out, but the comparison goes over Zelos' head as he glances back at the gnome and says with a scowl "Please Sheena, I'm doing the world a favor."

"Oh, so you want be the first to step up and get smacked, pretty boy?" The gnome says to the Chosen of Tethe'alla. Zelos steps forward and says "Oh, it will be my PLEASURE!"

Lloyd doesn't really do anything to stop Zelos as he glances at the group and says "So, we're ok with letting Zelos get beaten up by a gnome, right?"

Regal holds one hand against his chin and mumbles for a moment before commenting "I really think we should try to solve this without violence…Sheena is right, we can't kill a member of an endangered species."

As Zelos and the gnome were almost face-to-leg, Colette runs between them and holds her arms out while saying urgently "Please Zelos, don't hurt this cute little gnome."

"Colette…My dear, sweet little Colette…" Zelos sounds as though he was calming down as he spoke suavely to his fellow Chosen, but then he glances over right shoulder to scowl at the gnome while exclaiming "Sorry, but I'm not backing down from this one!"

Colette holds her hands against Zelos' chest, using her angelic strength to try and hold the advancing Chosen back as he tries to get as close to the gnome as physically possible. The gnome leaps at him a couple times while stating "Get out of the way toots! I'm going to bruise this punk's face so badly that he'll be as purple as my hat!"

With Colette getting involved in this matter, Lloyd is quick to rescind his earlier statement as he says "Zelos, seriously, back off. Are you really going to put Colette's life in danger after we JUST rescued her?"

It takes that reminder for Zelos' to calm down and re-assess his priorities in a matter of seconds. He glances down at Colette and backs away to take the pressure off of her efforts, smiling and saying in an all-too suave tone "I'm soooo sorry my sweet, sweet Colette. Come on, let's come up with another way of dealing with this gnome."

Zelos turns around and begins to walk off as Colette stands in place and smiles joyously, while the gnome blurts out in a very arrogant tone "Yeah that's right, run! Run like the coward you are!"

Colette opens her eyelids and pauses in place for a moment thanks to the insult the gnome tossed out at Zelos. She then starts to walk towards the group, only for her to suddenly start losing her balance and put on a rather fake look of surprise as she lets out an equally fake sounding cry before falling backwards towards the gnome. The little creature lets out a blurt of "Hey, wait a min-" Before he's crushed entirely by Colette's body.

The bridge trembles in the wake of her fall, but not enough for it to break apart. The group looks at Colette, with Lloyd letting out an urgent sounding "Colette! Are you ok?!" The Chosen doesn't take long to get back on her feet through, with the gnome blocking the way now knocked unconscious on his own back. Colette looks back at the gnome and sticks her tongue in her usually naïve manner, but at the same time getting the gnome back for insulting her friends.

She then looks back at Lloyd and reassures him "I'm fine Lloyd. But hey, now we can move on!" Colette's sheer nonchalance in the matter surprised Lloyd, who could actually piece together that the girl deliberately fell atop the gnome to get him out of the way.

"…Well, I guess this is as non-violent of an answer as we can manage." Regal points out after letting out a momentary sigh. After he mentions this, Riku zips back into the cave with another gnome pinched by the clothes on his back. The gnome was a tad beat-up and unconscious, and the teenage Overlord was panting in and out due to how quickly he flew back to the Toize Valley Mine.

"Sorry I ran off like that, but I found their Big Bro-" It takes a moment for Riku to notice that the group had somehow already knocked the other gnome unconscious, at which point he slaps the front of his forehead with his free hand and comments "Ah great, I went searching for him for nothing."

"Why is he knocked out?" Raine asks the teenage Overlord. "…He was attacked by a bunch of monsters when I found him, so I just picked him up and-" "You knocked him out yourself, didn't you?" Genis interrupts Riku's explanation with the obvious answer.

The teenage Overlord immediately goes on to say as he glances down at the gnome in his hand "I honestly don't know how something this small can be so stubborn." Riku tosses the creature off to the left, summoning a cushion of wind to catch it below a wall before he glances at the group just in time for Regal to shake his head and point out "At this rate, we're going to make another enemy out of the gnomes."

"Not like they'd be able to chase us through Tethe'alla. Besides, we'll never come back here again." Zelos is quick to point out, which leads to Sheena feeling a chill down her spine and commenting "Why does that sound foreboding to me…"

With their way open, the group crosses the bridge and heads for the deeper parts of the Temple of Earth. After a winding rock path, they end up in a darker area, where a more stable wooden bridge awaits them along with, much to the annoyance of the group, another gnome blocking the way on the other side. Lloyd groans at this and sinks his head, which causes the gnome to comment "What? You got a problem with me loser? You want a fight?!" He had the same cutesy voice and tough attitude the other gnome did.

"…All of them are like this, aren't they?" Lloyd mumbles out in a tone of annoyance as he stops in front of the gnome. "They must have had a poor upbringing." Zelos points out, leading to Sheena taking another jab at him with "Just like you."

Zelos flinches in surprise and then looks at Sheena before saying in a somewhat angered tone "Ok seriously, what did I do to deserve all these comments today?" Riku whistles innocently in the background, causing the Chosen to glance at him briefly before the gnome comments in response to these antics "What are you babbling about? What're you here for?"

This time, before Zelos makes an idiot of himself again, Regal steps forward and kindly bows his head while asking nicely "We wish to go further in. Would you mind letting us through?"

"You want me to let you through for free? The world doesn't work that way kiddo." It wasn't the response that took Regal aback, but rather the fact that the gnome called him a 'kid' that matter him stutter out the word and pause in place.

Lloyd groans again and points out "Not again…You and your brothers look and act way too much alike…So what do YOU want?" The gnome replies after taking a moment to think "Aha! I've always wanted to know what 'spicy' is like. Does 'spicy' taste good? Gimme something spicy to eat!"

Considering how demanding the creature was being, it's not surprising that Genis almost considered giving him a 'spicy' fireball to the face. But he calmed down and asked the gnome "Would curry work?"

"Yeah! That's good! Feed me that!" The gnome proclaims. "Then, let's take a break here for now." Raine states to the group, but then Regal offers up the question "But who shall cook the curry?"

Riku sits down in a crossed position and leans back against the nearby rock wall while mentioning "Wish I could help, but I've never cooked anything before. If he wanted a fruit or vegetable, I could just whip one up with my powers, but…"

"That's ok Riku, we have plenty of supplies on hand for curry." Lloyd points out, leading to Genis waving his hand and saying to his friend "Lloyd, I hope you aren't thinking of cooking."

"Huh? Why not?" Lloyd asks, his tone insinuated that he was insulted by the remark. "You failed to make a sandwich back in Sylvarant, I don't trust you with a curry." Genis explains.

"Ugh…Fine Genis, then I guess YOU can make the curry!" Lloyd says as a rebuttal, which leads to the half-elf replying with "I can't make curry you doofus!"

"Ugh…" Lloyd looks away from Genis for a moment to glance at the rest of the group, thinking about who to pick out to cook the curry. He only glances at Raine for a moment and gets a sick feeling in his gut as he imagines what horrors would be inflicted on the gnome if she were to cook. Looking at Colette gives him a little more faith, but then he worried about Colette's tripping and spilling the hot curry all over the gnome's body.

He then looks towards Regal and Presea, but passes up on them when he considers that Regal's shackles might make things tough for him or that Presea probably hasn't a cooked a meal while she was 'possessed' by her Exsphere. That leads to him glancing right past Zelos without hesitation and looking at Sheena, where he asks her as she perks her head up while sitting down "Sheena, think you can handle curry?"

"Huh? O-Oh, you want me to cook?" Sheena points to herself in surprise, but is then saddened to admit "Sorry Lloyd, I'm not a very good cook." As she admits this, Lloyd reluctantly looks back at Zelos, who was nonchalantly smiling in place as though he was waiting to be chosen.

"Actually Zelos, wouldn't you know how to make a good curry because of your upbringing?" Lloyd asks. Enthusiastically, Zelos answers "Of course! I watched my lovely maids work in the kitchen sometimes, and curry was always a specialty dish whenever we had company. Just give me the ingredients and I can whip up a perfect dish for this gnome!"

Raine gives Zelos the ingredients out of the pouch she was carrying around, and after the Chosen glances back at Lloyd the boy says to him "I hope you know how much I trust you on this, Zelos." Zelos takes pause and appears to let out a half-hearted chuckle before he says in his usually jovial tone "I won't let you down Lloyd!"

Thankfully, there was some wood nearby with a pot on top for Zelos to cook in. While he got to work, everyone sat around waiting. It was nice to just take a break after everything they had already been through today. After a few minutes, the curry released a nice, spicy smell that caught Riku's attention. "Huh, so that's what curry smells like. Kind of wish we had enough ingredients to make some for everyone."

"You've never had curry before?" Lloyd asks in surprise. "Haven't really had much food in general. Kind of hard to cook when you're in space." Riku answers.

"Next time we're in a city where we AREN'T fugitives, we should get some more curry supplies and have a meal." Genis says, which is something everyone in the area agrees on with a nod of the head, with Riku in particular saying "Thanks guys, I really appreciate it."

After another ten minutes, Zelos has finished making the curry. He invites the gnome over to the bowl to try it out, and after the creature dips his hand into the bowling red food mixture without flinching he puts the food in his mouth and eats it quickly. After a couple seconds he turns around and proclaims "Oh! Oh! This is very spicy!" Even though his face doesn't start sweating or anything else in the slightest.

"…I guess he doesn't have any taste buds." Lloyd whispers out in the face of the gnome's reaction. "Awww, and I put all that work into choosing the perfect spices for the curry." Zelos' choice of words along with his tone of disappointment suggest that he was planning on turning the gnome into a fireball with a heavy amount of spices.

But the gnome doesn't pick up on this, and the little creature leaves the area without saying thanks for the food. Everyone stares blankly at the little creature before Sheena comments "These guys are really getting on my nerves. Even Zelos says thanks sometimes."

"Wait, were you comparing me to the gnomes before that?" Zelos asks, but the ninja ignores the question as she rises to her feet alongside the rest of the group. And despite his persistent for a bit, the Chosen eventually stops asking Sheena for an answer once they run into yet another gnome blocking their path. Like the last one, this gnome proclaims cutely "What? You losers got a problem? You wanna fight?"

"…Their reactions are identical to the point that it's just silly…No, we don't have any business with you." An annoyed Lloyd bluntly states to the gnome. But to everyone's surprise, the creature replies "Hmm? Your face says, 'We want to go further in, but there's a big chasm and we can't go any further. I wonder if there was some other place we haven't been yet? Well, I guess we'll go here.' Right?"

Lloyd blinks a few times before muttering out "…What kind of face is that?" Then the gnome further takes the group off guard by offering "Hey, want me to help you out?"

"What?!" Lloyd blurts out in sheer disbelief, while the taken aback Genis naturally asks "What do you want this time?!" Despite the half-elf jumping to suspicions, the gnome just nonchalantly replies "What? Nothin'. Don't need nothin'."

After everyone takes a pause to think about the fact that there is such a thing as a nice gnome in this group, Raine kindly asks "Please help us." The gnome says in response "Sure thing darling! Just follow me and I'll lead you to the secret chasm!"

The gnome dashes past the group to a prior part of the caves, and after following him they end up back at the bridge where they knocked two other gnomes unconscious. But thankfully for the group, the friendly gnome doesn't notice this matter as he stands before a small, winding stone path leading to a darkened tunnel in the distance. "Took you long enough!" The gnome blurts out, leading to Lloyd whispering "…Guess even the nice ones can say the occasional mean remarks."

"Anyways, follow me! Just be careful not to fall, the road is a little rocky!" The gnome turns around and chuckles at the little pun he made, while Lloyd groans and says "…The sooner we're done here, the better."

Everyone goes in a careful line across the pathway while following the gnome, moving slowly enough that they won't cause the sides to crumble beneath their feet. The nimble gnome moves along with ease and makes it into the tunnel before the group has gotten past the halfway point. But once they catch up, they weave through the dark tunnel with a little difficulty and then find the gnome standing atop a rather creaky looking bridge.

"Alright, so now that we are here we need to lower this path in a very specific way. I'm going to need the one with the silly looking ring to stand beside me and use his ring at the same time as I jump, so that way we can lower the bridge and-" The gnome tries to use this long explanation, but Riku merely points his hand at the bridge and uses his powers to lift it up.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" The gnome blurts out before he leaps off the bridge and lands in front of the group. Riku brings the bridge over to the group and says to them merrily "Get on everyone, I'll carry us over to where we need to go."

"Hey! Why did you ask for my help when you had crazy powers like that at your disposal?!" The gnome inquires in a rather furious tone. The teenage Overlord glances at him and replies quickly "I didn't know we had to go here."

"Oh." The gnome says blankly, and after feeling a little embarrassed as the group walks atop the bridge he waves at them and says "Well! Have fun! I got things to do!" The gnome runs off soon afterwards.

Sheena turns around on the bridge and notices a beige colored seal in the distance atop an elevated rocky mound. "Go that way Riku." She says after the boy turns around. "On it!" The boy replies enthusiastically before he swings his hand forward and moves the bridge through the air. It was a short journey, and after landing the bridge on the ground the group gets off and starts to approach the seal. Zelos comments "I can't believe the bridge didn't break apart since we were all standing on it."

"Glad to help…" Riku says, letting out a tiny bit of sweat and catching his breath subtly after Zelos looks away. The group stands behind while Sheena walks towards the front of the seal with more confidence than she did with Volt, waiting patiently for Gnome to make his appearance.

The ground starts rumbling, but in a majestic manner instead of the usual violent tremors. Two spires of rock launch up on both sides of Sheena's body but then sink back down as the tremors calm down. Then, another spire launches up before the ninja, making her leap back to avoid being shunted into the air. A creature emerges from the center of the spire and flies high into the air as the spire vanishes.

The creature that emerges twirls around in an aloof manner as he goes towards the center of the seal. As it lands the group can get a clear look at him, revealing him to look like some sort of giant, cuddly mole with a shovel in his right hand and some sort of bow-tie atop his rounded head. "So this is Gnome…" Lloyd says.

"Since Volt was Undine's opposite, Gnone's is-" Before Genis can give an answer, Lloyd tries to be smart by snapping his fingers and proclaiming "Efreet! Once we pact with Gnome, that'll sever their mana flow!"

Raine immediately walks up behind Lloyd and backhands him across the back of his head, leaving a little burning sensation in his skin as she reminds him "No, it's Sylph! …Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you before you actually remember it?"

As Lloyd glances down in an embarrassed manner, Regal places one hand against his chin and chuckles while saying "I see that the level of education in Sylvarant matches the status of the world." This remark is insultingly to Raine, but Lloyd misinterprets it and says "Yeah, I guess you could say that!"

Raine and Genis both smack their foreheads, while Zelos and Colette giggle and Presea points out bluntly "Lloyd, that was not a compliment."

After glancing back at her friends, Sheena looks at Gnome and whispers to herself after building her confidence up with a deep breath "All right, here I go…"

The Summon Spirit hops up and down while scratching the back of his head with his shovel and saying "Hmm…so, you're a summoner, huh? Well look, sorry, but I've already got a pact with Mithos, 'k?" His voiced carried with it a cutesy echo that sounded just a little bit tougher than the gnomes.

"There's Mithos' name again. He must have been amazing." Colette says in a tone of sheer awe as she looks at Gnome and is entranced by how cute he is.

Sheena waves her hand at Gnome and proclaims "I am Sheena! I seek a pact with Gnome. I ask that thou annulst thy pact with Mithos, and establish a new pact with me." While continuing to scratch the back of his head, Gnome says in a bummer out tone of voice "Man, you sure use some stuffy language…bleh." He sticks his tongue out a bit and his eyes somehow cross into an X-shape.

Sheena nervously admits "Ummm, well…I mean, this is how I was taught to do it." Gnome pulls the shovel away from his backside and says "Really? Oh yeah well, whatever. All right, show me whatcha got. Bring it on!" The Summon Spirit swings his shovel forward ready for a battle, but before it begins the ninja crosses her hands in a T-shape and says "Hold on a minute, I need to ask something of my friends first!"

"Huh? Oh fine, fine, I can allow it…I guess." Gnome looks rather disappointed, but doesn't deny the summoner her request in a too offended tone. Sheena flips around and leaps to the front of the group, waving her hand out and saying "So umm, who wants to help me out?"

"After the beating I took from Volt, I'm definitely sticking this one out." Zelos says, stepping back a couple feet as Sheena gives him a half-open glare, which shifts to a more merry one as Riku and Lloyd both say to her "We'll help you out Sheena."

They glance at each other in surprise over the fact that they said the same thing, but Sheena smiles at them and says "Thanks guys. Anyone else?"

Presea brings out her axe and places the blade against the ground "I didn't get to help you with Volt, allow me to make up for that now."

"That's four then. Good enough. Hope the rest of you don't mind standing back and watching." Sheena says to the rest of the group. Raine nods her head and pulls out her staff while mentioning "I'll be ready to heal you when you're done. Good luck."

Sheena, Riku, Lloyd and Presea nod their heads in an appreciative manner at Raine and then approach Gnome. The Summon Spirit looks at them and says "Huh? Four-on-one? Sheesh, what happened to the standards of fighting these days…I remember when Mithos fought me, he did it by himself!"

Riku draws out his sword and points it at Gnome while saying "Hey, if it works it works. Don't mock it until we lose." "Eh, if you say so kid." Is the Summon Spirit's response. With an enthusiastic leap into the air, Gnome points his stomach at the ground and falls down in front of the steps with a heavy pound, flipping himself around onto his tiny feet and spinning around while saying "Time to taste DIRT" in a fun sounding tone.

Gnome immediately goes for a spell as he folds his shovel in front of his body and grabs the spade with his other hand while summoning a glyphic seal. It doesn't take him long to wave his shovel upward while enthusiastically proclaiming "Ground DASHER!"

The ground cracks apart in a scar-shaped ravine below the feet of his four opponents, forcing them to split apart as an eruption of earth-based energy bursts out from the scar. With the group split in two, Presea takes off towards Gnome and pulls her axe beside her head, letting out a battle cry as she stands before him and swings it at the Summon Spirit. Gnome swings his shovel down to casually block the axe, where a shockwave is created from the impact that pushes Presea back a few feet.

Gnome then digs right into the ground with his shovel while Sheena throws a seal at his body. The Summon Spirit burrows underground as the seal passes above his body, and he digs so far down that he doesn't leave a trail of rising dirt as he moves around. "Be on your guard." Sheena points out as she draws two seals and slowly moves about in preparation for when Gnome emerges.

It takes a few seconds, but the ground starts to tremble as Gnome rises back up. It was impossible to tell where he was coming out from, leading to mass surprise as the ground below Lloyd's feet begins to rise up in a crack mound. The swordsman tries to use his Guardian field to protect himself, but he's carried up into the air by Gnome's girth as large chunks of rock spread out around the emergence point.

Gnome flips himself to the side of Lloyd's body and gives his back a nice whack with his shovel to send him hurtling towards the ground. The mole giggles as the attack hits, but while he's in mid-air Sheena leaps up and taps both of her readied seals on his back, performing a kick off of his bulky backside to end up back on the ground beside Presea. The axe-wielder runs at Gnome as the creature lands and Sheena's seals activate, causing a light mist to appear around the Summon Spirit in the form of a moon that causes him to see an illusionary world.

Presea leaps up and spins around, performing a diagonal cleave that cuts apart the mist surrounding Gnome and dealing a decisive blow to his body that pushes him back and makes his eyes cross into an X yet again. As Gnome recovers, Lloyd swings his swords against the ground twice to send two-fanged projectiles into his back, stunning him with each impact long enough for Riku to run up and deliver a horizontal flaming slash on the side of Gnome's body.

"Ow! That hurt!" Gnome blurts out, even if his body didn't have a scratch on it. The Summon Spirit then slams his shovel against the ground and lifts it up to send a rain of large rocky chunks at Presea and Sheena. Gnome then quickly burrows back into the ground before Riku can strike him from behind with a wind-based sphere.

Presea cuts down two of the rocks that fly her way and then lifts her axe above her head, slamming it down into the ground with all of her might to send a shockwave through the ground in pursuit of Gnome. But to no one's surprise, the Summon Spirit weaves around the attack and leaps out behind Presea, and with the girl forced to drag her axe out of the ground Gnome is able to raise his shovel up with both hands and then try to bonk Presea hard on the head with the bottom of the spade.

The attack is barely blocked by Riku, who creates a thick cushion of wind above Presea's head to nullify most of the impact. The shovel manages to break through, but doesn't end up leaving the girl with nothing more than a minor daze in her head as it connects. "Now Lloyd!" Riku proclaims as he draws his left hand back and grits his teeth upon feeling a slight jolt of pain from holding Gnome's power back.

Lloyd leaps over the teenage Overlord's body and dives straight at Gnome with both of his swords pointed downward, hitting him with a mighty sword thrust to the face before landing and immediately jabbing both of his swords outward in a rapid fashion, followed up by him folding his swords beside his body as he slams his shoulder into Gnome's gut and then leaps up while thrusting his swords out with all of his might to launch out a beast-headed projectile that pushes Gnome off of his feet and sends him sliding across his back on the ground, creating a surprisingly heavy cloud of dirt as he goes.

Lloyd feels a tinge in his shoulder from colliding with Gnome, and as he lands on the ground he points out "Can't believe how durable he is…" With the dust fading out, Sheena throws two more seals inside the cloud to tag Gnome, but after a few seconds the seals explode on empty air and blow away the dust to reveal that the Summon Spirit has once more dug a hole to escape.

But this time, Gnome doesn't come back up to attack, preferring to stay in the safety of his underground tunnel as he prods his shovel into the ground to create a series of rocky spikes below Presea's feet. The girl is poked across the arms by the tip of the spikes and is launched back towards the seal.

Gnome sends multiple stone spikes across the area as he digs around and prods the surface with his shovel repeatedly, leading to the group leaping and dashing around to avoid being punctured. The lack of forewarning made it difficult to predict these movements, which forced Riku to take flight and Lloyd to swing his swords around to cut down the spikes before they raised too far up. But meanwhile, Sheena pulls out a blue seal and looks at the hole in the ground.

"Lloyd, I have an idea! Prepare to attack Gnome!" Sheena proclaims as she begins to use her summon magic. But Gnome has other plans, and summons forth a diagonal stone spike on all four sides of Sheena's body. The ninja is forced to duck down to avoid being impaled, where Lloyd then has to run past the other erupting spikes to free Sheena with a circular cut.

Sheena backflips out of the center of the shattered spikes and creaks her body backward to crack her spine back into place after narrowly avoiding death. With sweat trickling down her face, Sheena holds her seal back up while Riku leaps in front of her, brandishing his sword and saying "Go ahead, I'll fend off anymore attacks."

The ninja nods her head in an appreciative manner and works her summoning magic again, while Riku ignites his blade with fire and zips around Sheena's body whenever he feels the ground tremble, using his sword to cleaning carve the stone spikes down before they can extend far out of the ground. Lloyd is forced to preoccupy himself with the remaining spikes until Sheena can finish summoning.

"Come, Undine!" Sheena proclaims as she summons forth the Summon Spirit of Water, who immediately sends out a large stream of water into the hole Gnome dug into. The water went through so quickly that it didn't take long for the ground to crack apart and tiny spurts of water to be released before a large chunk of the ground erupts, launching Gnome into the air atop a geyser of Undine's creation.

The mole flailed his arms around while saying "Whoa whoa! You guys have Undine?!" Away from his domain, Gnome was left defenseless as Sheena sent Undine away and let the geyser vanish. "Now!" She proclaims to her allies afterwards.

Lloyd leaps into the air and uses both of his swords to slash across Gnome's underside, while Presea runs close to where Gnome is going to land and pulls her axe back with both hands, waiting for the right opportunity to bring her weapon down straight onto Gnome's gut, piledriving the Summon Spirit right into the ground, burying him in a large crater that nearly trips Presea up at the edge as it's created.

Gnome doesn't budge in the slightest for a few seconds as Presea lifts her axe out of the ground and twirls it before she stamps the blade into the ground beside her, but then the Summon Spirit lifts his right arm out of the ground and waves around a tiny white flag that he pulled out of nowhere, saying in a raspy voice "Uncle…Uncle…You win…"

Sheena, Riku, Lloyd and Presea look at each other and smile at their victory, and after a few more seconds Gnome leaps out of crater and lands atop the summon seal again. He coughs a couple times, saying to the group in his usual tone of voice "Geez, I guess there is something to fighting against multiple people…But man, I'm not even the strongest Summon Spirit, I hope you can get better before then."

"We already have four other Summon Spirits!" Lloyd exclaims, leading to Gnome saying in a surprised tone "Seriously? Oh, whatever then…Go ahead and make your vow, I guess."

Sheena rubs the front of her forehead and groans out "This guy is hard to deal with…" Before she waves her hand out and says "For the sake of creating a place in which the two worlds no longer must sacrifice one another, gimme your power!"

"Hmmm…well, all right. I'll go ahead and lend my power to you guys." After Gnome seals the pact, a bright wind blows across the air, and without Sheena's aid three small winged creatures appear before the Summon Spirit of Earth. These three creatures had different shaped wings and colorful clothing and hair, and their presence made Gnome poke his head up and say happily "Whoa, Sylph! Hehe, it's been like what, uh…four thousand years? How's it goin'? Lookin' good!"

The green-haired Sylph says "It has been a long time, hasn't it? It seems that the mana flow between us has been severed." Gnome nods his head and states "Yep, there's gonna be an earthquake here in a bit. After all, we just basically ripped out the mana link. Hello!"

Gnome lifts his hands up, using his powers to mend the battlefield back to normal while the purple-haired Sylph says "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." The pink-haired Sylph turns around and merrily waves at the group before saying "Take care, everyone! See ya all later!"

Sylph disappears from sight, and after a momentary pause Gnome looks at the group and states "Okay, later!" He then vanishes in a puff of light, leaving Sheena with a brown seal in her hand and a satisfied, confident look on her face.

Lloyd sheathes his swords and pumps one of his fists in front of his body while saying "All right! Just like we planned! Good job you guys!"

Riku waves his right hand up above his head, dragging a nearby rock up to the elevation of his fingers before saying "Alright, that's another of my elements back in my possession." He snaps his fingers to drop the rock back onto the ground, and then he turns around and joins the group as they gather together.

Zelos is the first to acknowledge the aftermath, as he claps his head a couple times and says "Good job, especially you my voluptuous darling…But hey, I've been thinking…If the worlds are separated from other, we won't be able to see each other again, right?"

Lloyd glances at Zelos in confusion and says "Huh? Why not? So long as we have the Rheairds, travel between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla should be easy." But Raine reminds Lloyd afterwards "Right now, we can move in between the worlds because they're connected by the flow of mana. Once they are split apart, we don't know what will happen."

"In other words, it's possible the two worlds may part ways forever…" Regal states in a somewhat melancholy tone. "So we'll have to say goodbye once we pact with the final Summon Spirit?" Colette asks, the thought of leaving everyone she's met in Tethe'alla being hard for her to imagine.

The group goes silent for a few seconds afterwards, and though the conversation picks up everyone speaks in a slower, saddened tone "…We don't know if that's really the case, so there's no point in worrying about it."

Zelos feels a bit bummed now that he brought the subject up and says "…True." Which is then followed by Presea trying to move away from the subject by asking "…Where shall we go next?"

Regal's surprising knowledge comes into play now, as he suggests to the group "I've heard that the Summon Spirit, Celsius, resides near Flanoir." Lloyd nods his head in agreement and says "Okay then, let's go have a look."

The group starts to depart from the Temple of Earth with Riku extending a bridge back to the other side with his revived Earth powers, but before they make it out of Gnome's room the teenage Overlord thinks about the group's discussion in an inflective manner _"…It's nice to know everything will turn out different than what they expect, but it's got me thinking…What would it feel like if I could never again return to any of the worlds I visited before? All those promises I made to come back would go unfulfilled, and I could-"_

"Hey Riku, you ok?" Lloyd asks, breaking the boy's concentration on this subject for the time being as he lifts his head up and replies in a stoic manner "Sorry Lloyd, I was just thinking about something personal, don't mind me."

"Alright, just thought I'd ask." Lloyd says before he turns his head back around and continues onward, and with him still in ear-range the teenage Overlord nods his head and says "Lloyd…Thank you."

_Next Time: The Frozen Fracas _


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Celsius**

With Gnome now lending his power, the group makes their way out of the Temple of Earth. The journey is surprisingly quiet, but before they leave through the exit they are stopped by a squeaky, unwanted voice. "That's them, that's the group of fools that knocked me out!"

Lloyd turns back around after a momentary pause, and he says in a somewhat worried tone of voice "Ummm…guys, you might want to look at this." The group turns around and finds a mob of about fifty gnomes gathered together, with the one that Riku beat into unconsciousness standing at the front of them all.

"…I can't help but feel this is my fault." Riku quietly points out after sighing at the presence of the gnomes. Looking at the group, the frontal gnome known as Big Brother says "Kill them all! Leave none of them fools alive!"

"This is just what we needed, a fight with an entire race of gnomes." Raine points out, glaring specifically at Lloyd and Riku for getting them into this mess. The teenage Overlord wants to make up for his mistake quickly though as he turns towards the professor and comments "Sorry about this little mess-up Raine, let me make up to us quickly."

As the sound of one-hundred tiny feet charge at the group en masse, the teenage Overlord nonchalantly flips his right fingers upward, pulling a large chunk of rock up from the ground to create a thick wall between the group and the gnomes. About twenty smacks are heard as the gnomes collide with the wall, and Riku lowers his hand and turns around while commenting "Alright, now we can leave."

As the group flips back towards the entrance of the Temple of Earth, they can just barely hear the gnomes cursing up a storm regarding the wall as they bang their little hands against the stone to try and break it down. "I'd feel sorry for the gnomes, but they kind of brought this upon themselves for being so uncooperative…Save for that one guy." Sheena comments.

"…Come to think about it, that guy that tried to help us was probably a part of that mob." Lloyd says, to which Riku shrugs his shoulder and comments "Eh, an ally one day can be your enemy the next…Of course, I don't think I have to remind you of that."

Lloyd pauses and thinks about Kratos as the group arrives at the parked Rheairds, replying to Riku's remark with a simple "…Yeah." Before he boards his ride. The Rheairds take off to the sky, and one they were high enough Lloyd asks Regal "So where is Flanoir?"

"It should be northeast of the Renegade Base. But we shouldn't waste any time at the city while we need to make a pact with Celsius." Regal explains, and to reassure the man Lloyd comments "Don't worry, I wasn't planning on detouring there. We'll stay right on course."

"Awww, that sucks, I heard Flanoir's lovely this time of year, and the ladies tend to wear the best type of clothes around there." Zelos says, his mind wandering off to dirty thoughts, and for once Sheena just ignores him entirely.

The group flies towards the frozen land mass they briefly saw as they headed towards the Renengade Base, and after a good amount of time the air starts to become frigid and difficult to bear. The problems lie mostly in how high up they were, leading to the group's hairs standing up on end as they try to stay warm. "Brrrrrr…What the hell, how can anyone live around here?" Lloyd comments in a chilled tone of voice.

"It's an acquired sensation Lloyd. You'll be fine after a while." Raine comments in a calm tone, and from the looks of things she was the only one not greatly affected by the weather. The teenage Overlord looks at Raine and says to her "Well the last thing we want is for someone to be frozen to the Rheairds. Here, let me help you guys out again."

With his power over flames, Riku surrounds the combined flight space of the Rheairds with a veil of heated air, making the temperature around average. Everyone's hair settles, with Lloyd glancing at Riku and saying in a thankful tone "That's a relief, good work Riku."

Raine shakes her head and states in a rather disappointed tone to Lloyd "Riku won't always be around to make things warm Lloyd, you're going to have to face the cold someday." Genis responds to his sister by saying "Raine, not everyone can be as immune to the cold as you are…"

"I'm not immune to the cold Genis, I am just able to handle it better than most people." Raine calmly replies, which is followed by her brother whispering out "I guess that's just something cold-hearted people can do…" But the half-elf professor naturally heard him, as evidenced by a few seconds later when Genis gets an Apple Gel thrown into the left side of his face.

After a few more minutes, the group takes the Rheairds towards the only part of the icy land mass that isn't the city of Flanoir, and that is an elevated series of cliff paths that lead into three different caverns. Landing on the ground in front of the cliffs, the group notices a swift change back to a colder temperature that actually managed to overwhelm Riku's heat. Not only that, but the cold carried with it a familiar feeling.

"This is…mana?" Presea comments as she feels the snow exclusive to the caves falling directly atop her skin and hair. "How fascinating, the snow here is made out of crystallized ice mana. That means we've arrived at Celsius' domain." Raine says in her usually intuitive voice.

"I don't see how having mana inside makes the snowflakes any different from normal ones." Riku comments in a half-jovial tone, to which Regal replies with a knowledgeable sounding "It's just a way of identifying a Summon Spirit's domain in a thriving world since the Oracle Stones have disappeared."

"I guess that makes sense. Either way, lets hope we can find Celsius without running into anymore annoying species…" Riku says. The group then proceeds for the only cave they can reach for now, that being the one directly in front of them.

Crossing through the snow proves surprisingly simple because of how low it was, but even so the group was thankful once they didn't have to deal with it once they entered the cavern. Looking around, there wasn't much to see save for a ground filled with thin layers of ice atop solid rock flooring and a ceiling covered in icicles of varying sizes.

"Whew, it's actually a lot warmer in here." Zelos comments after letting out a sigh of relief. "Huh, from my experience, caverns are usually colder than the outdoors." Riku says in turn.

"Hmmm, you have a point. Actually, considering Efreet is Celsius' opposite, perhaps he is protecting us from the cold so long as we are inside of her domain." Raine theorizes, leading to Lloyd scratching the side of his head and commenting "Why can't he just protect us from the cold all the time? Talk about selective help."

Raine folds her arms and looks at Lloyd with a glare, saying to him "Because, Lloyd, he can probably only help us with Summon Spirit related weather." But before they two could get further into this argument, Regal points out "It doesn't matter why the cold isn't affecting us here. The moment we make a pact with Celsius, we should no longer have to worry about it."

"Regal's right, we're just wasting time complaining." Sheena agrees with the man's remark, leading to Lloyd dropping the subject with a nod of the head and a simple comment of "Sorry, I was just a little worried about Colette."

"Huh? Why is that Lloyd?" Colette perks up in confusion and asks. Lloyd turns to her and points out "Well you've never handled the cold very well. Winters in Iselia always left you bed-ridden for weeks."

"Oh yeah. I always remember how you would come into my house and offer to help make soup for me. Hehe, then there was that one time Genis tried to use magic to heat the water and ended up covering the kitchen in noodles." Colette's recollection leaves Genis embarrassed at himself, at which point he stutters out "I-I was just learning magic back then, it was an honest mistake."

"It's ok Genis, my parents got a laugh out of it, and I did too…Once I got better." Colette says to make her friend feel better, but this cutesy moment between the three friends was interrupted by Zelos "You can reminisce later. Regal's right, we shouldn't be standing around wasting time."

Lloyd narrows his eyelids towards Zelos out of annoyance, and Sheena nudges the Chosen in the hip and says to Lloyd "Sorry, he just isn't good at reading the mood." The group moves on again until they reach an elevated stone bridge, at which point Lloyd glances to the right and notices something interesting on a platform in the distance.

"Hey, shouldn't the cold prevent flowers from growing?" He asks, his words bringing Raine to an immediate halt as she turns around and draws her eyes on the object Lloyd mentioned. It was a small flower of pure white that was made entirely out of ice.

"That's the fabled Celsius' Tear! Legend says that this flower is capable of turning an entire ocean into ice with a mere touch, and can send a person's body temperature to absolute zero! Ohohoh, to take such a flower and figure out how it works has always been a professor's greatest dream!" Raine's excited voice reaches a critical and rapid peak near the end, leading to most of the group slowly backing away from her.

"So…Ummm, think we should grab it?" Lloyd asks, leading to Raine immediately flipping around and calming down before stating "Lloyd, we can't just grab the Celsius' Tear. Any one of us would die if we tried."

"But I have gloves on, it can't touch my skin." Lloyd's obliviousness leads to Raine groaning before she points out "No Lloyd, even with those gloves you'll suffer a severe case of frostbite."

"Then I'll just put another layer of gloves over them!" Lloyd proclaims, and this time it is Regal who interrupts the commentary between the two to mention "If I may…Lloyd is not exactly wrong. I have heard rumors that there is a certain set of gloves that can withstand even the cold temperatures of the Celsius' Tear. They belong to Penguinist's, a rare creature that looks like a human dressed as a penguin."

"…What?" Riku says in a tone of stoic disbelief. As Regal explains himself further, Raine reaches into a bag she happened to have on her "Unfortunately, I imagine we will have to scour far and wide to find a single Penguinist. But perhaps-"

"You are referring to these gloves, correct?" Raine interrupts the man and holds up a pair of blue, soft looking flippers. Regal blinks for a couple times before whispering "How do you…" Raine explains herself immediately after by stating "I happened to find one of these in Sylvarant. Who knew they would have a use."

"Alright Professor! You always got something to help us out! Put them on Colette, she can fly over and pick up the Celsius' Tear." Lloyd says, and as he mentions this Riku immediately widens his eyes and thinks about what would happen if Colette were to suddenly trip over her own feet while holding the tear. Imagining the entire group being kept in cryogenic status was one of the more harmless options.

"Ummm, wait a second Lloyd, it'd probably be better if I handled the Celsius' Tear." Riku says in a nervous tone. The boy turns towards him as Colette puts the Penguinist Gloves and says "Don't worry about it, so long as Colette flies off the ground, she can't trip."

"I won't let you down, Lloyd." Colette enthusiastically states before she takes off towards the Celsius' Tear with the help of her angels wings, flapping her hands up and down like a little penguin might before she lands in front of the flower and picks it up, turning around and flying back to the group while keeping the flower held between her hands.

"Alright, so now that we've gone flower picking, what's next?" Zelos jokingly states, with Raine saying as she stares close at her reflection in the Celsius' Tear and smiles "I can only imagine this will help us get to Celsius. Let's get a move on."

Entrusting Colette with the flower, the group cautiously moved further through the Temple of Ice until they reached a frigid pond with four submerged pillars and various rocky spikes. "Hey Professor, you said the Celsius' Tear can freeze an ocean, right?" Lloyd asks.

Raine nods her head, but as the revelation of what Lloyd was insinuating hit her hard the half-elf professor glared at Lloyd and said "No. Don't you think about-" "Colette, place the Celsius' Tear on the surface." Lloyd gives Colette some instructions, and the girl nods her and moves her hands down towards the surface of the water.

Raine exclaims "Colette Brunel if you use that Celsius' Tear I will-" But it was too late, the flower touches the water, instantly freezing it all over and making the Celsius' Tear vanish into nothing afterwards. The half-elf falls to her knees and cries out in agony at the loss of such a rare artifact, and after lowering her head she starts whimpering out "Those are rarely born into this world…Sniff…"

Lloyd doesn't pay attention to Raine for the moment and says as he looks out at the frozen pond "Alright, now we can cross. Hopefully Celsius' seal is close by." After hearing Raine sniffle a few times in self-pity, Lloyd turns around and says "…Professor, maybe Celsius can make another of those flowers once we form a pact with her."

"…I guess you're right." Raine admits, and after brushing aside a tear she got back onto her feet and further admits "That wasn't very mature of me. Sorry everyone."

Everyone excepts her apology without a word, and after a little slip sliding 'fun' on the frozen pond the group ends up on the other side. In their way are four pillars guarding a single stone slab door. "Ah great, a puzzle." Lloyd groans out. "It seems we have to put the pillars in a specific position to open the way…" Regal rubs the bottom of his chin as he says this, cracking a slight smile at the puzzle as a contrast to Lloyd's annoyed expression.

"Tell me there's some sort of hint to help us out." Lloyd says, hoping that Raine would provide a solution of her own. But the half-elf stays silent, because even she didn't know the answer to this puzzle. "Ummm guys, just look back at the pond, the solution is obvious." Riku gestures behind himself with his right thumb, causing Raine to turn around and see what the teenage Overlord was referring to.

Indeed, there were four pillar heads sticking out of the ice, and since they were perfectly aligned with the pillars in front of the door it was obvious what the group had to do. Raine and Riku tell Lloyd and Zelos which direction the pillars need to be swerved, and once they are successful the slab of stone flies straight up into the wall to allow entrance to the next room.

Past the door is a secluded cavern with an icy blue-grey seal atop a small hill. Naturally, this was Celsius' seal. Sheena starts to approach the seal, but instead of a Summon Spirit appearing from it a voice echoes from above "You possess the right of the pact. I am Celsius, one who is bound to Mithos, the hero." The voice was bold and feminine.

Sheena looks up and says "I seek a pact with Celsius. I ask that though annulst thy pact with Mithos, and establish a new pact with me." The Summon Spirit lets out a merry laugh, but then proceeds to state "YOU seek a pact with me? How amusing. Let's see if you can handle me. Come, Fenrir!"

Without warning, the top of the seal glows bright, and from it leaps out a large canine with frigid blue fur and three tusks on both sides of it's mouth. It lands on the ground and immediately scratches at it with it's frozen claws while a ring of frost appears to the left of him and summons forth a beautiful arrangement of icy spikes. A figure descends from the ceiling and kicks right through the ice, shattering it apart to spread ice dust across the floor as she gracefully lands and spreads her arms out.

The Summon Spirit of Ice, Celsius, was a human-like figure with pale icy blue skin and a dress similar to that of a foreign dancer from Riku's world, with her skirt cut near the left leg and ringed bracelets wrapped around the arm below the wrists. She lifts her head up and reveals her frost blue eyes, smooth black hair with a sky-blue headband on top and icy grey tattoos streaked across her stomach and legs. Swinging her body to the right, Celsius says in a more subdued voice "Show me your power!"

Naturally, Sheena and Lloyd step up for battle. Riku joins in as well, followed by Genis stepping up to the plate with his kendama at the ready for spell-casting. "Hope you like fireballs, Celsius." Genis says as he nudges the front of his nose.

Celsius smiles and replies "So you're a mage? Fenrir, you knew who to go for." With a snap of her fingers, Fenrir zips across the ground and goes straight for Genis. Lloyd flips around and goes to intercept the frozen wolf, blocking his charge by standing before him and crossing both of his swords. Fenrir lashes his claws out and rebounds off of Lloyd's blades, landing in front of him and lowering it's head as it gauges out it's next move.

As Sheena glances back at Lloyd for a moment, Celsius dashes at her and leaps slightly while extending her left leg for a frosted kick, but before it connects Riku comments "Heads-up Sheena!" as he sprints beside her and swings his sword out, clashing with the middle of Celsius' foot with just enough strength to force her to kick back and land safely on the ground with a slight skid. Riku then draws his sword back beside his body as the ninja focuses back on the Summon Spirit and says "Sorry, lost my focus for a moment."

With Sheena drawing a couple of seals from her clothes, Riku comments "Don't worry about it, we got your back." The teenage Overlord ignites his sword with fire while grabbing onto his right shoulder and swinging his arm around to get a brief kink out.

Celsius glances at the boy and grins while saying "You're adamant on besting me with fire, huh?" The Summon Spirit then coats her right hand in ice and jabs at the ground. Immediately as she does so a frosted circle appears below Riku's feet, forcing him to leap to the left before a bushel of thin but sharp icy spikes rip through his body. Celsius follows up by running at the teenage Overlord and jabbing her left elbow into his gut to wind him.

Afterwards, Celsius coats her bracelets in ice and gracefully swings her arm outward to brush Riku with an icy slash. She simultaneously ducks down to avoid an attempt by Sheena to put a seal on her skin, and with amazing dexterity she slides back to where she was before.

Celsius then stands upright and begins to lean back, holding her arms at a downward slant as she opens her hands and uses her powers to create two icy lances. She throws her body back upright while swinging her arms forward to throw the lances at Riku and Sheena's heads. Sheena ducks under one of the lances as she goes in for a swift attack on the Summon Spirit, while Riku leaps to the side while cutting the other lance in half so it's momentum would stop before it hit the others behind him.

The teenage Overlord then folds his left hand back while saying to Sheena "Get beside me!" As a warning declaration as he summons forth flames in the palm of his hand. Celsius grins as she leans forward slightly and watches as Riku sends out a fireball twice his size at the Summon Spirit. Celsius slams her right hand against the ground, sending out a large wave of ice across the ground to meet the fireball.

The two forces collide, but to Riku's surprise the wave of ice swallows the fireball and turns it into a jagged, reflective sphere of frost that's suspended in mid-air. "Nice try there, but I told you that your flames wouldn't be enough to stop me." Celsius states.

But while the Summon Spirit was proud of herself, Sheena leaps around the fireball and throws five seals at Celsius, all of them attaching to the right side of her skin and grabbing her attention. She turns towards the ninja and smiles again while using her powers to freeze over the seals, leading to them crystallizing and falling onto the ground. But while she was distracted by that, Riku ran to his frozen fireball and punched the backside of it to send it flying at Celsius.

It's girth was enough to prevent even the agile Summon Spirit to dodge the frozen fireball, and when it crashes with her it shatters apart and sends Celsius flying through the air above her seal. She flips around a couple times and lands feet first against the back wall of the cavern, where she swings her arms out and swirls her fingers around to form another pair of lances.

She then leaps off of the wall and flips around to land on her feet, sliding along the ground at Sheena while spiraling her body around with her lances held out to create a deadly, slicing ring outside her body as she goes straight for Riku. The teenage Overlord holds his sword up and covers it in electricity to strengthen it as Celsius collides with him.

Her lances grind against the field of electricity surrounding his sword, pushing him slowly back across the ground until he notices the lances were being worn down just enough that Celsius was but a few feet away from his body. Riku then takes his excess of electricity and sends it straight out through Celsius' lance to electrocute the Summon Spirit's body, stopping her entirely in place as she lets out a somewhat pained cry.

Her body surges outward with electricity for a few seconds before it vanishes, and taking advantage of her brief paralysis is Sheena, who runs at Celsius' back and smacks her with a seal on the back. Riku punches Celsius in the face to send her flying back as Sheena leaps to the right to avoid getting hit. Once Celsius falls on her back in front of her seal, the seal that Sheena stuck on her goes off and creates a small explosion that launches her into the air.

As she flies towards the ceiling, Celsius recovers and flips herself around while saying in a praising tone "I didn't expect such tactics from you. But lets see how you handle this!" Thrusting her hands at the ground, Celsius unleashes a cold frost that pushes her further towards the ceiling while gracefully flipping her body so her feet stick to the ceiling once she arrives at it.

Celsius spreads her arms out and uses her powers to summon forth dozens of icicles across the ceiling. She looks down upon the ground and sees that Fenrir has been taking out by Lloyd and Genis, which leads to her commenting "Such a shame that Fenrir doesn't share the immunity to flames that I have. But I am certain you have been weakened…Fall to my bitter cold!" The Summon Spirit throws her arms at the group, sending all the icicles at her disposal down at them in a hellish rain.

Lloyd and Genis both go for Guardian to protect against the initial onslaught, while Riku swings his sword upward to shatter the icicles and Sheena throws an explosive seal to blow away a large chunk of the icicles. The teenage Overlord knew he couldn't allow Celsius to repeat this move multiple times, and with quick thinking he swung his right hand out and molding the stone below the Summon Spirit's body into fertilized dirt.

He then manipulates the dirt, rapidly growing a springy fungus from it while saying to Lloyd "Jump on this to reach Celsius! You're the only one who can get close enough Lloyd!" The boy nods his head and proclaims "Got it!" Before he runs at the mushroom and leaps atop it, bouncing high up into the air at a fast speed as Riku pulls his hand back and hangs it limp in front of his body, feeling the agony of overusing his powers pulsating through his muscles as he stands in place.

As Lloyd flies towards Celsius, the Summon Spirit crosses her arms and says "To face me head on, you are certainly a brave soul!" With even more icicles being summoned forth around her, Celsius snaps her fingers to launch them out at the approaching Lloyd, only for the boy to swings his blades outward and send out a beast-headed projectile that blows apart all of the icicles, creating a flurry of crystal flakes around his body as he pulls his swords behind his head ready for the next attack.

The Summon Spirit is taken aback by Lloyd's resolve, and her shock at this boy's determination leaves her vulnerable enough for Lloyd to swing both his blades out across her entire body. The impact of the blades against her body leaves creases of cold air in her skin, and Lloyd is pushed back down towards the ground. Celsius falls off of the ceiling, her body descending slower due to her lighter frame.

Lloyd lands on his feet, surviving the jolt to his legs thanks to his Exsphere, while Celsius crashes on her back in front of her seal. At the exact moment that she falls, Fenrir disappears into the mist. "Did we win?" Genis asks. After a few more seconds, Celsius breaks into a merry laugh and uses a chilling gale to lift herself back onto her feet. Looking at the four warriors she fought, she says in a satisfied voice "Excellent. It would appear that my freezing chill is but a summer's breeze to you."

Celsius then looks specifically at Sheena and states "Now, speak your vow. A vow worthy of my power!" With confidence flowing through her body, the ninja proclaims "For the sake of creating a place in which the two worlds no longer must sacrifice one another, I ask that thou grant me thy power!"

Celsius nods her head and states "Understood. Use my power well." Her expression then turns to one of brief surprise as the air around her grows slightly hotter, with a burning sensation of light summoning forth Efreet before her. The Summon Spirit of Fire nods his head gracefully and says in a gentleman-like manner "Celsius…It has been a long time."

"…I never thought I'd have to see your face again." Celsius replies with a voice of semi-disdain, which leads to Efreet lifting his head up and asking "While we may be opposing forces, must you avoid me so earnestly?"

Celsius brushes the side of her hair and says in a brutally honest tone "What choice do we have? We are harmful to one another" Efreet appears rather saddened by this reminder, and as he folds his arms he states "Then perhaps we should be joyous that our mana has been severed."

"…Who knows. What is clear, though, is that this situation will affect the entire world." Celsius gently states, to which Efreet says agrees to with a nod his head and a simply spoken "Indeed." The two Summon Spirits then turn to face Sheena, with Celsius stating "All we can do now is trust in the pact-maker."

Efreet adds on to this by mentioning with confidence in his voice "We leave everything in your hands." He then vanishes, and Celsius turns into a collection of mana particles that transforms into an icy-blue seal that lands on Sheena's open palm…Making Celsius the sixth Summon Spirit that she has made a pact with.

"Just one more mana link to go…" Lloyd comments as he sheathes his swords and turns around to meet back up with the rest of his friends. Colette comments "Do you really think Sylvarant and Tethe'alla will be cut off from each other forever?"

Zelos ponders Colette's question for a few seconds before looking at Lloyd and asking "We're gonna do this regardless, right?" Lloyd nods his head, albeit with a bit of hesitation, and replies with a simple "…Yeah."

But as Genis is quick to point out "But if the Rheairds stop working after we form the last pact, we're going to be stuck on one world or the other." Sheena reminds the group as well that "The people of Mizuho wish to move to Sylvarant…There has to be something we can do."

Raine brings her wisdom into the discussion by suggesting "We should do something investigation on the effects of separating the worlds before we form the pact with the final Summon Spirit."

Suddenly, an earthquake takes the group off-balance, throwing Lloyd and the weakened Riku against the ground while Zelos quickly works to catch Colette by the back before she lands herself. When the tremors come to an end, Lloyd and Riku slowly rise back up, with Regal commenting in a worried tone "It seems as though the shaking has increased in magnitude…"

"…The time between the severing of the mana flow and the resulting earthquake has decreased as well." Presea adds her observation to the mix in a stoic tone, leading to Lloyd commenting afterwards "I guess the worlds are struggling to split apart…"

Riku barely hears the conversation as he gets up, for something rips into his mind as he stands up, causing him to barely stand upright as he holds one hand against the side of his head and a voice calls out to him. _"Ri…Don't do…You're going to…Sto…em…Imbal…" _Their voice is cut off, and Riku's head turns back to normal as he whispers out "…Takashi?" The name of the black dragon that was also his friend, who he had not heard since he had arrived on this world.

"Huh? Who's this Takashi fella?" Zelos asks in a puzzled tone. Riku realizes the mistake he had unconsciously made and looks at the Chosen of Tethe'alla before saying "I-I thought I just heard a friend of mine contact me."

"You have a friend outside this world?" Regal asks, leading to Riku nodding his head and stating "Don't worry about it. When the time comes, I'll introduce you to him…"

"Hmmm…" Zelos hums out in intrigue before changing the subject with a swift and suavely spoken "So where shall we go now?" Raine comments "Lets return to the Rheairds first, then we can decide our next course of action from there."

With the group in agreement on that, they began to depart from the Temple of Ice. Along the way, Riku scratched the side of his head and thought to himself _"…Takashi, what has happened to you and Sodenko?" _

_Next Time: A Problem Arises from a Descent_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Mithos**

The group leaves the Temple of Ice, but upon doing so they noticed something odd about the weather above them. The snow had vanished, and the sky has become covered in ominous grey clouds. There is a swirling mass of chaotic clouds in the distance, and as Riku glares over at it his body begins to twitch in pain. "Oh no…If my memories are correct, this is the time when…" As he whispers this to only himself, a blinding light strikes out from the center of the clouds, acting as the precursor to a large blast of electricity that strikes down upon an as-of-then unknown part of Tethe'alla with extreme prejudice.

"AUGHH!" Riku's body flares up in pain as he lets out an equally painful scream before he collapses onto his knees and clasps one fist tightly against his chest. This doesn't go unnoticed by the group, with most of them turning towards the boy as Zelos proclaims in bewilderment "What's going on?!"

Presea's eyes widen in concern as she notices something peculiar about where the bolt of lightning struck. "That's…the direction of Ozette…" When she brings this to the group's attention, Regal nods his head and says in a melancholy tone "…Yes."

Genis asks "What was that? That was a staggering amount of mana flowing from that lightning!" When the half-elf brings this up, Riku slowly creaks his eyelids open and says "M-Mana…? What's going on here…?"

With Presea and Riku's remarks looming on her worried mind, Raine comments quietly "I have a bad feeling about this." Meanwhile, Lloyd swings his right arm out and says with a great deal of urgency "Let's go!"

After Sheena helps Riku to his feet, the group makes a mad dash towards the Rheairds, boarding them and taking flight away from the icy land mass. They fly straight for Ozette without any diversions, but before they land they see a large quantity of smoke rising up towards the fading clouds. The village was set aflame, and the very sight of this fire caused Presea to bite the bottom of her lip and think to herself _"Father…I pray your grave is ok…"_

Once the group lands their Rheairds, they run into the lowest layer of smoke and climb the left side of the now burning tree. When they reach the main part of the village, they are left completely speechless by what they witness. Buried under the burning remnants of the once sturdy houses were the skeletal remains of the villagers that lived in them. Those villagers could consider themselves lucky to have died such a swift death, for the remaining villagers slowly had their flesh burned off, their bodies charring into blackened corpses.

Colette falls onto her knees with her arms limply hung beside herself, and she lets out a meek "No…" As the searing carnage proves too much for her to witness. Riku excuses himself off to the side, as a combination of the pain from the lightning bolt and this horrid sight causes him to throw up, which surprises him immensely as this was a sensation he had never experienced before.

"…This is…horrible." Presea murmurs out as she looks over the burning remnants of her former home. Lloyd was saddened by this, but his anger took a greater precedence over that emotion as he exclaimed "What happened here?!" With memories of a burning Iselia flowing through his head as he spoke.

As Colette lied on her knees, she looked through the flames and noticed something peculiar behind them. Lying directly on his face was a young boy with long yellow hair, an archaic looking white shirt, and two jeweled bracelets on his wrists. "Lloyd! Look!" Colette rises to her feet and points out the person.

Lloyd doesn't waste time in running through the fire towards the person, but as Colette looks up she notices burning debris falling from the tree and proclaims "Look out!" This warning came out fast enough for Lloyd to draw both of his swords and cut through the debris and continue his run as he sheathes his weapons. Once in front of the boy, Lloyd kneels down and lays his left hand atop his knee while asking "Hey, are you okay?!"

The boy twitches slightly and turns his head towards Lloyd, looking at him with his blue colored watering eyes before Lloyd extends his hand out and says "Grab my hand, we need to get you out of here!" The boy grabs on and allows Lloyd to help him onto his feet. The group then runs for the only safe spot in Ozette, and that was the surprisingly intact house Presea once lived in.

Gathered in front of the house, the group takes a few seconds to cough out any smoke they inhaled, and the boy wipes the water out of his eyes before standing in front of Lloyd and saying quietly "…T-Thank you…"

Once Riku has gathered his wits from the last few events that have occurred to his body, he flinches in shock upon hearing the boy's voice and slowly lifts his head up to look at him, where his face goes slightly pale. _"…That's right…This is where he shows up…This isn't good for me…"_

With many questions racing through his mind for once, Lloyd starts by asking the most obvious one of the only survivor "What the hell happened here?" The boy, dizzied by the events that unfolded, takes a moment to respond by waving his right hand out and saying in a rather polite and youthful voice "…I don't really know. Without warning, lightning fell from the sky, and angels attacked the village."

"Angels?" Raine said in a curious tone, leading to the boy looking at her and nodding his head while explaining "They had wings. Those with wings are angels…right?"

Lloyd, in a burst of anger, swings his right fist out, nearly decking Zelos in the face as he grits his teeth and exclaims "Damn it, it must have been Cruxis!" Presea's body tenses up with an emotion she hasn't felt before, and with only Regal in ear-shot she murmurs out "Cruxis…so angels destroyed the village…"

Regal glances down at her and asks empathetically "Presea, are you okay?" Presea nods her head and says "…I'm fine. But…this unsettling irritation…is this…anger?" It was an odd thing for her to feel, especially considering how the villagers treated her and her friends.

Zelos smiles and says "I'm impressed you survived. Are you the only survivor? What's your name?" The boy looks at the suavely dressed man and replies "My name is Mithos. I lived by myself on the outskirts of the village, so…"

Lloyd's attention focuses on the boy's name and he immediately interrupts him with "Wait, you have the same name as Mithos, the hero!" Mithos is taken aback by Lloyd's straight-forwardness, which leaves him vulnerable to an observation by Genis "…Wait, are you a half-elf?"

Mithos, in a flustered tone, murmurs out "I…I…no…" But his denial of the matter only makes his true nature obvious. Raine walks up to him and rests one hand on his left shoulder, saying to him calmly "Relax. You can tell, can't you? We have the same blood flowing through our veins as you do."

Mithos looks up at his fellow half-elf in surprise before glancing briefly at the group then back to Raine and saying "You're half-elves, too? But you're with humans!" Colette smiles brightly and reassures him with "It's okay, we're all friends."

The boy brushes aside Raine's grasp and steps back, stating in sheer disbelief "…Humans and half-elves as friends? You're lying!" Genis steps forward and looks Mithos straight in the eyes before stating "No, it's true. My sister and I are part of this group." Mithos' eyelids lower in concern as he mutters out "…Y…Yeah, but…"

Regal tries to help out on his own by stating "Your reaction is understandable. I've heard that the village of Ozette is particularly known for their contempt of half-elves. If you lived an isolated life in this village, you must have suffered."

Riku looks at Mithos in a disgusted manner, thinking to himself _"I could oust you right now, but none of us are in any condition to deal with you…God, your bold-faced lies sicken me, Mithos." _As he finishes that thought, he hears two sets of footsteps approaching from the left.

The group turns their heads to see both Tabitha and Altessa entering the village, the dwarf's eyes focusing on the fire burning in Ozette before he looks down at the group and asks "What happened here?"

Lloyd looks at the dwarf and says in confusion "Altessa…? What are you doing here?" Altessa replies with "I saw the lightning of judgment fall towards this village. But what in the world…"

His thoughts were interrupted by Presea mentioning "It was the work of Cruxis angels." Her voice snaps Altessa's attention directly towards her, leading to him exclaiming in disbelief "Presea? You've regained your true self?! How could they do this? Is this their punishment for failing the experiment…?"

Sheena asks "What do you mean, punishment?" Altessa realizes what he accidentally let slip and shakes his head while saying "Nothing. It's nothing…" The dwarf turns around and begins to depart, even as Lloyd exclaims "Wait!"

Altessa vanishes from sight, but Tabitha stays around for a bit and explains "THE MASTER BELIEVES THAT IT IS HIS FAULT THAT OZETTE WAS DESTROYED." Colette asks "Altessa is connected to Ozette?" Leading to the girl nodding her head and saying in an apologetic tone "EXCUSE ME. I AM WORRIED ABOUT THE MASTER."

Tabitha turns around and leaves, but Presea steps in front of the group while saying quietly to Lloyd "I'm…going to follow him." Lloyd nods his head in agreement and says "Yeah, we need to find out more. Mithos, you should come with us."

Mithos says hesitantly "But I'm a half-elf and…" Lloyd interrupts him by bluntly pointing out "That doesn't matter. Besides, what are you going to do if you stay here and the angels come back?"

Genis then runs up to his fellow half-elf and smiles while exclaiming "Lloyd's right! Let's all go together!" Genis then takes his right hand out and grabs Mithos by his own, much to the boy's surprise, and with a little of his hesitation melting away Mithos follows Genis along as he goes back with the rest of the group.

As everyone heads to Altessa's house, Presea glances once back at Ozette and comments "…I no longer have a home to return to…" She holds one hand close to her chest and turns back towards the group while melancholy thoughts flow through her head.

As Genis and Mithos begin to converse with one another, Riku stands behind them, keeping his hands limp beside his body as he glares down at the newcomer with disdain. It pained him to have the half-elf around, and his thoughts reflected on this matter _"If it wasn't for everyone else, I can just imagine you staring back at me and smirking…As if Kratos showing up wasn't bad enough." _Riku lets out a subtle growl of annoyance, but didn't take action because events dictated that he couldn't do so.

Halfway to Altessa's house, Presea thought to ask of Raine and Regal "Why did Cruxis attack Ozette…I wonder?" But seeing as Lloyd was in the general vicinity at the time, he states his own thoughts calmly "Maybe it was because the village hated half-elves."

Raine shakes her head and comments "If that's all it was, it seems strange they'd suddenly do this now." Regal states afterwards "I'd tend to think it was more incidental than that."

"What do you mean?" Lloyd asks. As usual, Regal explains in a lengthy manner "They may have been searching for something…Or perhaps had something there they wanted to hide. In such a case, destroying the village would serve to conceal their actions."

Raine agrees with that theory and says "That's very possible. I believe Altessa is the only one who can shed light on this matter." The four in the conversation nod their heads in agreement.

Back with Genis and Mithos, Genis asks their new companion "Say Mithos…You lived by yourself, right?" Mithos nodded his head, leading to Genis asking curiously "Where are your mother and father?"

The question makes Mithos sink his head in a melancholy manner before replying with "…They're both dead." Genis flinches in surprise upon hearing this statement, and after glancing away from his fellow half-elf he says "Just like mine…"

Mithos perks his head up and says in a gentle tone "Really? …We're kind of alike, aren't we?" This bit of attention to their similarities rings true with Genis, who looks at Mithos and says "Yeah, you're right. Mithos, let's be friends, okay?"

The half-elf blinks a few times in surprise, but replies to the request with a simple and confused sounding "Friends? …Really?" Mithos then cracks a smile and says in an appreciative tone "Thanks, Genis!"

Riku sighs, but once again says nothing as the group walks the final stretch to Altessa's House. Once there, they find the dwarf approaching his door with Tabitha standing beside him. But hearing the twenty footsteps stopping behind him makes him sigh out, realizing that his past had finally caught up to him, and his earlier qualms with the group could now be soundly ignored. Turning around to face those gathered before him, Altessa leads the conversation off with a surprising bit of news "…I was a craftsman who worked for Cruxis."

Lloyd looks at the dwarf angrily and says "So you're on the side of the angels…Of Yggdrasill!" Altessa's eyes widen in surprise as he says to the boy "You know Lord Yggdrasill?!"

"Know him?!" Lloyd swings his right arm out while trying to get the dwarf back on subject by explaining "Because of him, Sylvarant and Tethe'alla into worlds that fight for each other's mana!"

Altessa pauses for a moment and looks at the group, examining the jewel on Colette's chest in particular and commenting "That's a Cruxis Crystal…I see. You must be the Chosen of the declining world Sylvarant. This must be fate…What happened to Ozette was my fault…"

Presea asks in a growing tone of anger "What…do you mean?" Altessa hangs his hands out and looks over the group before explaining in great detail "I came to hate the work I did, for it was indirectly taking people's lives. I ran away from Cruxis and hid myself in Ozette. But I was found by a Desian named Rodyle. He ordered me to create a Cruxis Crystal in exchange for my life."

Zelos murmurs for a few seconds before asking "So that means that the research on Presea was organized by Rodyle and the Pope, who then had you and Kate carry it out?" Altessa nods his head, further explains "Rodyle, while a Desian in service of Cruxis, was also planning to revolt against them. Because I supported his traitorous acts, Lord Yggdrasill grew angry and he…He destroyed the town of Ozette, which had protected me!"

Regal nods his head and rubs his chin, quietly pointed out to himself "So this is how Presea, this girl who reflects my distant memories…This is how she was caught up in this…This is terrible beyond words."

Altessa turns towards Presea and takes a few steps her way, saying in an honest tone "I'm sorry. I can never apologize enough, but…apologizing is all I can do now." Presea hangs her head and looks away from the dwarf while stating in a melancholy tone "…My time…will not come back. …The people of the village and Daddy will not come back."

Genis glances at the girl and says her name in an empathetic tone, while Altessa says again "I'm sorry…" Presea replies with "…Don't apologize. Even if you apologize…I can't forgive you right now." Altessa sinks his head down and then turns around, heading back into his house without another word.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, until Tabitha surprisingly says to the girl "PRESEA…I BELIEVE YOUR LOSS HAS BEEN GREAT. BUT PLEASE, DO NOT LOSE YOURSELF AS WELL." Tabitha then follows her master back into the house.

"Take it from someone who has dealt with a great loss, the first step is always to forgive…Even if that means sometimes forgiving yourself." Riku says, while Mithos follows up by mentioning "I…can understand Presea's feelings a little. Some things…never come back…Even if he apologizes…even if you want to forgive, you can't control those feelings."

"Not being forgiven…that may be punishment enough." Regal says wisely, but Lloyd shakes his head in disagreement and says "I don't think that's right. Forgiving or not forgiving isn't a punishment…I can't really explain it well, but…"

Zelos snaps his fingers to grab everyone's attention, saying quickly and suavely to them "Ah, well, anyway, let's not get into a philosophical discussion right now. Presea doesn't need to force herself to forgive him or anything. Let's just think about what we can do now."

Raine is surprised by Zelos' choice of words, and she proceeds to say to the group "Yes, Zelos' right. Personally, I believe we should take this opportunity to ask Altessa about Cruxis. We currently don't have enough information, and he seems to be an ally."

"You're right Professor. Presea, do you want to wait here while we talk to him?" Lloyd asks, and Presea lifts her head up and shakes it in response while saying "No…I should listen as well." The group then walks into Altessa's house, where they find Tabitha hard at work cleaning the area while Altessa can be seen near his desk.

Lloyd and Colette take the lead and walk over to the dwarf, who turns to face them in surprise and asks "…What do you still require of me?" "Can you tell us about Cruxis?" Lloyd asks nicely.

"…If you are willing to stay for a while, I can tell you all I know." Altessa explains, leading to Colette nodding her head happily and saying "That's okay Altessa, we can wait." The dwarf then moves away from his desk and walks across his house, guiding Lloyd and Colette to the only table inside, where he stands behind it and commands Tabitha to wait off to the right of him.

With everyone gathered around the table, Altessa began to explain "Cruxis is an organization made up almost entirely of half-elves. There are a large number of dwarves besides myself involved as well. Their objectives are to begin the Age of Half-elves and the revival of Martel. For that purpose, they make use of the Church of Martel and try to fuse the Chosen with Martel's consciousness."

"If that's true, then why do the Desians try to kill the Chosen?" Genis asks, and the dwarf immediately replies "Exspheres and Cruxis Crystals awaken when stimulated by it's owner's fear, suffering, and combat instincts. That is why the Desians disrupt the declining world in order to the facilitate the angel transformation by deliberately putting the Chosen in danger."

"What is Rodyle scheming?" Regal asks afterwards, leading to Altessa naturally replying "The revival of the Mana Cannon. He obtained the plans to the Mana Cannon somehow and is constructing it in Sylvarant. He's also the master of his own ranch. It's like he's using his captives in the construction of the cannon. Once it's complete, he probably intends to build his own empire."

"How can he make everyone suffer for such a thing…?" Presea mutters out in utter disbelief, while Sheena asks "Say then, is it true that Yggdrasill made the two worlds?"

"Well, that's how I heard it. That he anchored the two worlds, which are never to come in contact, via four mana links, and placed the Great Seed in the center between them to guard it." Altessa explains. Lloyd then perks his head up slightly and says "…The Great Seed? Where have I heard that before?"

Mithos, almost too unnaturally, mentions to Lloyd "It comes up in the stories of the hero, Mithos. That's people called the soul of Mithos, who died on the Holy Ground of Kharlan after the closure of the Ancient War." But there was something suspicious in that sentence, though it was different than what Riku had on his mind. Genis says "…Wait a minute. That's true, but…Why does the same legend of Mithos from Sylvarant also exist over here? I've been wondering about this for a while now. There are two Holy Grounds of Kharlan, two Towers of Salvation, and now the legend of Mithos if the same, too?"

Altessa explains "It seems it's possible to travel between the two worlds at their poles. I don't know where those poles would be, but perhaps that person we know as Mithos used that to travel between the worlds?" This theory made Raine go into a sort-of trance as she murmurs to herself "…Bipolar…could it be…?"

Zelos takes note of her shift in behavior and says "Hey, Professor, what's up?" His concerns opens her eyelids and makes her explain her thoughts wisely "This is my theory. Perhaps Ancient War was in fact a war between Tethe'alla and Sylvarant, and the hero Mithos arranged the truce that ended the war."

"So that's why the legend of Mithos exists in both worlds." Lloyd states, leading to Raine nodding her head and further detailing "And if we assume that one of the two poles is the Holy Ground of Kharlan, then we can understand the meaning of existence of two Holy Grounds. That's the door between the two worlds."

"…Yes, that makes sense. I've heard many ideas regarding the bipolar structure of the worlds, but yours works from a logical standpoint." Regal says, leading to the half-elf professor asking "What other ideas have there been?"

Regal leans one hand against his chin and explains in detail "There is legend passed down in the city of Altamira about something called the Otherworldly Gate. Some say that it's one of the world's poles."

"The Otherworld Gate…" The name of this location resonates within Raine, causing her to close her eyelids and descend into deep thought while Colette looks at Altessa and gets back on track by asking "So what is the Great Seed?"

The dwarf shakes his head and says "I don't know that either. But Lord Yggdrasill said that it was more important than his life." While all this discussion was going on, Lloyd appeared rather dizzy, and he said as he swung his back and forth "…I can't wrap my head around all of this stuff at once…"

With the discussion seemingly at an end, Altessa looks at the group and says "You all must be tired by now. Why don't you rest here for the night? Mithos…right? If you don't have anywhere else to go, you should stay here at my place for a while."

"What? Are you sure that's okay? I mean…I'm a half-elf." Mithos explains, and Altessa replies empathetically "The only ones living here are Tabitha, who I made, and me, a dwarf. You do not need to fear discrimination."

"You made Tabatha?" Colette says in a tone of shock. Altessa turns towards the Chosen and states "Yes. Tabatha is an automated doll. So having a half-elf here isn't a problem."

"Tabatha…is a doll…" This bit of news makes Colette feel a bit of similarity with Tabitha, and she looks at the poor girl with an empathetic glance. With the dwarf explaining himself, Mithos replies with an accepting "Okay."

"Then we'll stay here for the night, too. Is that okay with you, Presea?" Lloyd turns and asks, and the girl replies honestly "…You don't need to worry about my, Lloyd."

Tabitha bows her head and says to the group "THEN I SHALL PREPARE DINNER." She walks off to the kitchen, with the group splitting up a bit to hold some conversations with each other until it was time to eat.

Riku continued to loom close by Mithos as the half-elf held a conversation with Genis. "Hey Mithos, let's play together after dinner!" Genis exclaims merrily, leading a nervous Mithos to reply "O-Ok…Are you really sure you're fine with being friends?"

"What are you talking about? You're the first half-elf friend I've ever had! Of course I'm fine with it!" Genis' enthusiasm was almost overwhelming for Mithos, and the boy couldn't respond until after Genis takes out his kendama and says "I'll teach you how to use the kendama! We'll have so much fun!"

"Hehe, thank you Genis!" Mithos says in an appreciative manner. Riku folds his arms in a perturbed manner and glances away from the two half-elves, looking at Lloyd as he was in the middle of a conversation with Raine.

"Heh, looks like Genis' has made a friend." Lloyd says in a happy tone. "Indeed…I'm glad he has someone from his own kind to associate with besides me." Raine replies in a relaxed tone.

"…Yeah, good for Genis." Riku says in a rather half-assed tone, leading to Raine glancing at the teenage Overlord and asking him bluntly "Is something the matter Riku? You've been acting strange since Ozette was destroyed."

Riku rubs the back of his head and says to Raine "I'm just a little winded…Saving Colette, fighting two Summon Spirits, and the carnage at Ozette…All that just took a lot out of me." The half-elf suggest afterwards "Then perhaps you should retreat early for the night. You said you don't require as much food as the rest of us, right?"

"Even so, a bit of food might help me get some of my energy back. Then I'll run guard duty outside the house just in case Cruxis tries another attempt on Altessa's life, especially now that all of you are staying here." Riku explains himself, leading to Lloyd nodding his head and saying "I didn't think about that. Thanks for covering us Riku."

The teenage Overlord nods his head in a thankful manner, and after glimpsing at Raine's suspicious glare he turns his head to look at Mithos one last time before Tabitha said it was time for dinner. When everyone gathered around the dinner table, Raine sat to the left of Mithos while Genis sat to the right. Riku sat across from the half-elf boy between Regal and Colette, and thought to himself _"Hmm, got to stop acting so weary of Mithos when Raine's around. She's catching on to my actions, and it's only making ME look suspicious."_

The dinner table was filled with merry conversation in the middle of food consumption, with treats abound filling the table. For an animatronic, Tabitha was a really good cook. Each soup was textured perfectly, the meats were cooked at the perfect temperature, and the vegetables were made with the finest of leaves. And oddly enough, there was a single bowl of curry that Riku was specifically given.

Asking around, the teenage Overlord found out that Zelos requested Tabitha make some for him. An appreciative comment was thrown at the Chosen before Riku took his first bite of curry. It was a surprisingly spicy experience, and it only took a few bites into the curry for Riku to start sweating. "I've never felt anything like this…And I've been near a couple suns…" He whispers out, but even with the spiciness inflicted upon his taste buds the teenage Overlord felt greatly compelled to continue.

Though unfortunately, Riku couldn't really eat much else after that. In fact, he spent the next ten minutes after the meal using his water powers to fill his mouth and dull the heat. To thank Tabitha for the meal, Riku helped with the clean-up process while everyone else began to retreat to bed for the night. The only people up by the time Riku was done helping were Lloyd, Mithos, Genis, Altessa, and Tabitha.

Lloyd was thanking Altessa for his hospitality, and Genis was having a little more fun with Mithos before he went to bed. When Mithos and Genis retreated into the guest room, Riku approached Altessa and said to him "Heh, guess you really haven't forgotten the Dwarven Vows after all."

"I never did…But this is only a fraction of what I can offer after all I've done." Altessa explains. "A start is better than nothing at all. It'll be nice to have you as an ally." Riku says in return. After staring at the dwarf for a few seconds, the teenage Overlord folded his arms and gave him a serious glare, saying in a hesitant tone "…Altessa, did Yggdrasill ever mention someone called the Elemental Overlord to you before?"

"You're talking about yourself, right?" Altessa first asks before he turns his body to face the boy fully and comments "You didn't do well to disguise yourself in that case. Off the top of my head, I can only remember a man meeting Lord Yggdrasill that had similar powers to yourself. I'm sorry I could not offer a better answer."

"…No problem Altessa. Good night." Riku replies as he relaxes his pose and sees Altessa off to bed. The teenage Overlord then takes a sit at the front of the table, looking out the window to see that the pale moon was casting it's light upon the outdoors. Though it was meant to act as a calm, Riku could not get rid of this underlying tension inside of his mind.

"…I can't ignore this matter. While everyone's asleep, there's something I have to do." With hesitant decisiveness, Riku glances back at the room he saw Mithos enter and rises to his feet, where he then slowly walks towards the guest room.

Inside, he finds Mithos kneeling at the edge of Colette's bed, his eyes focused on the girl's Cruxis Crystal above her chest as he glided a couple of his fingers over it and whispered to himself "Sister…Soon enough you'll have the perfect vessel…"

Upon hearing the presence of Riku's footsteps, Mithos turns his head to face him and sees his fierce looking glare. Mithos smirks slightly and says "Riku, you're still up? I would've thought you'd go to bed with everyone else."

The teenage Overlord doesn't stick to small talk with the half-elf, and immediately says to him in a tone quiet enough to avoid waking everyone up "Cut the crap, you know who I am, and I know who you are."

"…Hehe, how observant of you." Mithos says in a more chilling tone as he rises to his feet and looks at the boy, saying to him afterwards "It has been a while. Your appearance may have changed, but there's no mistaking your powers."

"…Mithos…No…" Riku folds his arms in front his chest and says in a firm tone of voice "Yggdrasill, leader of Cruxis, it's time we talk." Mithos walks closer to the teenage Overlord, barely flinching at his request as he stands before him and looks him straight in the eyes, cracking a smile as he states "Yes…This has been a long time coming…Elemental Overlord."

_Next Time: The Reunion of Two Pasts_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: 200[0] Years Ago…**

"…_I can't believe I'm doing this." _Riku thinks as he stands before Mithos the man who also goes by the name of Yggdrasill, the leader of the organization Cruxis. Though the teenage Overlord keeps a brave expression as he stares down at him, his mind was wrought with doubt and a slight tinge of fear. Meanwhile, Mithos smiled at him with an eerie vibe of confidence surrounding his body.

"So then, where shall we talk?" Mithos asks in a polite tone. Riku replies with "Is here not to your liking?" While trying to keep an air of confidence around him.

"And risk the possibility of being found out by the others? I am not ready to reveal myself just yet, not until the Chosen is back to a perfect condition for Martel to inhabit." Mithos explains in a rather quiet tone. Once he's done, he walks beside Riku's body as he heads for the door while stating "I have a place in mind. Follow me."

The teenage Overlord feels a quiver of concern shake through his nerves, and before he faces the man he asks "And how can I trust you to not take me back to Derris-Kharlan the moment I leave the house?" Mithos pauses in the middle of the doorway, and with his hand waving out he assures the boy "I only wish to talk…For now. But if you wish to doubt my intentions, you can just stay in here and remain ignorant of the past."

Mithos walks out of Altessa's house, and as Riku grips his right hand tightly he ignores his inner hesitations and turns around to follow the half-elf outside while stating to himself "I can only regret things in the afterlife…" Once outside the house, Riku watches as Mithos faces him and summons forth his own angel wings, which had multiple "feathers" with a rainbow coloring spread across them all.

"Let us fly atop this traitor's home. That will keep us out of earshot of the others." Mithos says before he flies off of the ground and heads to the very top of the rock face Altessa's house in built into. Riku watches him for a few seconds before kicking off the ground and quietly flying after him. The two land atop the smooth surface, and the teenage Overlord stands to his side as Mithos glances out at the sky afar.

"The moon looks nice tonight, doesn't it?" Mithos says as his eyes glimmer in the face of the glowing full moon. Riku faces the half-elf and says to him in a serious tone "What do you want from me, Mithos?"

"Heh, impatient, aren't we? I guess even with the powers of a god, you're still just a human." Mithos comments in a stoic tone of voice, leading to Riku stating with his expression looking a little more irritated "I'd prefer it if we didn't bring our races into this conversation."

"…You are in no position to demand something from me, even with your title…" Mithos then turns to face the teenage Overlord, commenting in a callous tone of voice "Especially since you lack the strength expected of someone of your rank."

Riku grimaces, since Mithos' words reminded him that the half-elf had a reason to not flinch in the face of anything he says. "I can't believe someone like you would be allowed to know how my powers work, especially before I did." The teenage Overlord comments in an annoyed tone.

"Well then, shall we begin?" Mithos ignores the boy's comment and offers him the chance to start the conversation they came out here for in the first place. Riku, nervous because of how powerful Mithos was in comparison to him at this moment, starts off with the most glaring question "…How do you know the original Elemental Overlord?"

"It was two-hundred years ago when he came to our world-" Mithos begins to explain himself, but immediately Riku interrupted him with a surprised expression on his face "Wait, that's impossible. The Elemental Overlord died two-thousand years ago."

"…You are surprisingly ignorant about how the universe works." Mithos bluntly replies, leading to him then explain "The answer is simple. The flow of time varies between different worlds. What would be one year on this planet would be ten on the Elemental Overlord's. Hence why our meeting took place two-hundred years ago for me."

"…That's right, now that you mention it, a friend of mine did explain that to me before." Riku says after a moment's thought, leading to Mithos grinning slightly and stating "Excellent, so you aren't entirely ignorant. Now, as I saying…"

_Two-hundred years ago, we find the original Elemental Overlord approaching Mithos, whose body was aged up to that of an adult as he was currently taking up the identity of Yggdrasill, leader of Cruxis. Yggdrasill sat on his throne in Derris-Kharlan with Kratos off to the left of him acting as both a guard and an observer. "So, you are Mithos Yggdrasill, the ruler of the divided worlds of Tethe'alla and Sylvarant" The Elemental Overlord stated in a semi-respectful tone._

"_And you are the Elemental Overlord, the higher-ups' so-called 'Precipice of Eternal Light'. I have heard many things about you." Mithos says in a stoic voice as he leaned his head against his right hand, whose elbow was placed against the arm of his throne. "So you learned of me from the higher-ups…Interesting." The Elemental Overlord said without the slightest bit of concern in his voice._

"_So tell me, Elemental Overlord. What brings you to Derris-Kharlan?" Mithos asks. The Elemental Overlord is swift and to the point in his words "For 3,800 years, you have kept the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla separated from each other, and your army of half-elves have harvested the bodies of thousands of humans for your Exspheres. With these along with your Chosen system in mind, I have come here with an offer. Return the worlds to their original state and bring an end to both your Exspheres harvests and the Chosen system."_

"_Hmm…" Mithos was intrigued by the Elemental Overlord's offer, but specifically pointed out "How interesting. You come to me with an offer, but it sounds more like a demand. What is your end game if I refuse your 'offer'?" _

_The Elemental Overlord draws his majestic sword, causing Kratos to go for his own before Mithos leans forward and stops him with a single hand gesture. The Elemental Overlord states "Then I will kill you and your ally and restore the world myself."_

"_Hahahah…" Mithos calmly laughs in the face of the Overlord's bravado before commenting in a quiet voice "You have no power here, Elemental Overlord. I was warned by your higher-ups about your visit, so naturally, I was told exactly how to deal with you were you to go out of control."_

"_If you approach me, I will use the Eternal Sword to manipulate time and space, taking you to the planet and weakening you to the point where I will be able to kill you with ease." Mithos makes his plans known with confidence bordering on arrogance, and the Elemental Overlord pauses in place while lowering his sword slightly._

"_So we are both threatening the other with death. But I have reason to believe that if we were to both execute our threats, you'd come out on top…Very well, if I have no power here, then perhaps you'd like to ask something from me in exchange for reuniting the two worlds?" The Elemental Overlord asks. _

_Mithos smiles slightly, and nudges to Kratos to send him away from the area. Once the lord of Cruxis was alone with the Elemental Overlord, he said to him "So you'll be willing to give me something in exchange for the world to return back to the way it was before I divided it? You truly must desire for things to return to the way they were, even if this is not your home world. Very well…"_

In the present, Mithos finishes his explanation off for a moment as Riku steps back nervously and comments "So that's what this is about…You settled on a deal with the Elemental Overlord, and he died before he could fulfill it. So now, you want revenge on his successor."

Mithos looks at the boy and comments "If that were my intention, I never would have sent Kratos to retrieve you. And you are also wrong about the Elemental Overlord failing to fulfill his end of the deal…Because in the end, he never intended to deal with the task himself."

Riku pauses in place and his body twitches slightly despite what Mithos said, and he asks of him "What do you mean by that?" Mithos replies to the best of his ability "I would almost think that the Elemental Overlord was precognitive with the way he handled my bargain. He said that while he couldn't give me what I wanted, if I were to let him live, then one day I would get exactly what I deserved from his successor."

"It took 200 years, but sure enough…Another Elemental Overlord has appeared before me, ready to fulfill the deal the original gave to me." Mithos spoke of this event in a merry tone of voice, and with Riku utilizing a piercing glare he asks "What could you possibly require from me, Mithos Yggdrasill?"

Mithos extends his right hand out and says "Elemental Overlord, with your powers, I want you to revive my sister, Martel." The clearness of the half-elf's request took Riku entirely off-guard, and he pulled his head back while looking down at Mithos with a surprised expression. "Y-You can't be serious…"

"Of course I am. The Elemental Overlord made it quite clear that one who can form a perfect balance between Light and Darkness is capable of reviving the dead. My sister's body has been preserved all this time, which means all I need to do is bring you to Derris-Kharlan so you can complete the task. But I've seen that attempting a forceful capture is not helping, so I will offer you the chance to come willingly." Mithos explains.

"…So if I understand what you're saying, if I were to revive Martel, you'd restore the world, abolish Exsphere harvests, and never let another Chosen exist?" Riku asks. Mithos nods his head and replies "There'd be no point to a Chosen if my sister is revived, especially when the world becomes one again. And without a Chosen, the Exspheres won't need to be harvested to induce suffering within them."

The teenage Overlord thinks about Mithos' words and weighs them against the struggles the group had been dealing with along with the events that would transpire later on. It doesn't take long for Riku to respond with "…I don't believe you." His expression changes to one of surprise, as though those words were spoken subconsciously.

"I am a man of my word, Elemental Overlord. Are you saying you won't finish the deal your predecessor started?" Mithos asks. Riku, having already delved into this matter, puts on a brave face and says to the half-elf "I'm not ignorant of your plans, Mithos. You expect me to believe that you will abandon your 'age of lifeless beings' plan once Martel is revived? You want to end discrimination by making everyone the same because of Martel's last words to you."

"Hmm…Now how would you know any of that?" Mithos comments in an intrigued tone, and Riku pulls back upon realizing that he let slip information that he shouldn't have. Trying to keep on subject, the teenage Overlord mentions "But tell me the truth, you wouldn't give up that plan, would you?"

"Of course not. I promised my sister a world without discrimination. To do that, I have to make everyone a lifeless being." Mithos makes his response obvious, leading to Riku turning his body towards the front of the cliff and saying "…Then I have no intention of helping you, regardless of what the original Elemental Overlord said to you."

Riku is about to jump off and head back into Altessa's house, but Mithos then asks him "What makes you so confident in the Chosen group's foolish journey?" The teenage Overlord pauses in place and straightens himself upright before he faces Mithos again, commenting in a puzzled tone "Why do you ask?"

"It only makes sense that you would deny my deal to revive Martel if you had a heavy deal of faith in whatever foolish plans the Chosen and her friends have up their sleeves." Mithos explains, leading to Riku glaring at him in a puzzled manner and commenting "That and I could never agree with your lifeless beings plan."

"I fail to see why you wouldn't. Isn't the goal of an Elemental Overlord to keep the worlds in balance?" Mithos asks, leading to Riku immediately stating in an annoyed tone "You have been misinformed."

"That's certainly interesting. So you are not out to protect the world." Mithos interprets Riku's words in that manner, leading to the teenage Overlord brandishing a pointer finger his way and bluntly stating "I want to protect the world, but I don't care anything about this 'balance' that those 'higher-ups' want me to uphold…Especially if it means helping to fulfill your insane plan."

"You call my plan insane, and yet you follow the blind efforts of the Chosen and her friends. Tell me, what benefit is there to following them if you want to do the right thing?" Mithos asks in a stoic voice, to which Riku folds his arms against his chest and replies "For one, the Chosen isn't attempting to strip the entire world of their individuality."

"Stripping the world of individuality? You say that like it's a bad thing." Mithos says in an unnaturally calm tone, and as Riku stares at him in disbelief the half-elf continues to explain "Tell me, Elemental Overlord, what is your view on discrimination against half-elves?"

"…It's definitely a terrible, terrible thing. But you know, your actions haven't done anything to make humanity's opinion of your kind any better." Riku bluntly points out to the half-elf, leading to Mithos laughing and commenting "Haha, how expected of humans. They have this image in their heads that they are the dominant species in the universe, that nothing can ever be superior to them. Anyone or anything that is different from them is thus killed or suppressed to prevent the possibility of humanity being surpassed by any other beings."

"You're a real piece of work, Mithos Yggdrasill." Riku replies with in a cold tone, to which Mithos goes on to mention "Heheh, I don't see you denying what I've said."

"No, you're right." Riku folds his arms against his chest and says to him "There are humans out there who are exactly as you describe them, but there are kind humans around as well. You can't tell me you didn't notice Lloyd's kindness towards you, right? He accepts half-elves just fine, as long they aren't going around killing humans like the Desians are."

"Heheh, Lloyd is an idealistic fool, he knows nothing of how monstrous his own race was before the worlds were split apart." Mithos responds in a callous tone, which does nothing more than anger Riku considering the front the half-elf was putting on around the group. The teenage Overlord says to him "Don't you dare say another word."

Mithos ignores Riku's demand and waves his right hand out while smirking and explaining "For one-thousand years before I split the world in two, Tethe'alla and Sylvarant fought each other merciless for control of magitek. They slaughtered each other, bathing battlefield after battlefield in blood and corpses. They didn't care how many resources they wasted so long as they succeeded in obtaining power."

"Eventually, humanity did what was expected of them, and shifted the blame towards the half-elves. To extend their pathetic war, humanity enslaved half-elves and forced them to fight and build weapons. Of course they wouldn't blame themselves for the war, that would only be rational, and humanity is an irrational mess. And for all the effort I put into stopping their petty war by splitting the world in two, how did they repay us?"

"They killed my sister. Took her life right before our eyes without a single regret in their actions until the very moment they died. Even with their reason to fight gone, they kept their self-born hatred of half-elves and tried to kill them. It's pointless to try and fix humanity, they are incapable of learning anything from their actions." By the time Mithos was at the end of his little triad, Riku immediately snapped at him and said "You think humans thought nothing of your actions? They wrote stories about your journey, called you a hero! You can't judge all of humanity just because one person killed your sister!"

"…Hehe, yes, the 'stories' of my exploits. Have you even read any of those stories yourself? Humanity has twisted those tales throughout history until nothing remains of the original. The most obvious omission was that in those stories, Mithos the 'Hero' was not called a half-elf. After all, why should humanity be indebted to a half-elf? A legend is only good if it's exactly the kind of thing that can inspire future generations." Before Mithos could continue any further, Riku steps directly in front of him and grabs him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him up off the ground and putting him close enough to his face that he would be able to see his burning glare and vicious scowl.

Mithos' expression doesn't change much as he lets Riku say to him with a tone of intense fury "I am getting sick and tired of you trying to justify everything you've done over the last 4,000 years. Any sane person would have realized just why doing all this is wrong! I'm sorry your sister died, but do you think she would approve of anything you've done if she were to come back to life?!"

"Why wouldn't she? I am giving her exactly what she wanted…A world without discrimination." Mithos replies with the utmost stoicism, and he the continues on by mentioning "To think you would have the guts to touch me despite knowing I could destroy you the very moment you prove worthless to my goals."

Riku glares at the half-elf for a more seconds, and after a rough sounding scoff he drops Mithos back onto his feet and takes a couple steps back. "I'm not afraid of you Mithos." Riku states as he swings his right arm out and summons forth his sword before brandishing it at the half-elf.

"I could see how nervous you were around me before. What could possibly have changed to make you think you can face me in battle?" Mithos asks, to which Riku boldly replies "I have no intention of fighting you here, I am just making a point. I would hope you wouldn't plan to fight me here either."

"Why not? I have two options to revive my sister, I can get rid of you at any time I want." Mithos explains. "Except right now. If you try and combat me, even in my weakened state, you'll more than likely bring the entire cliff side down. The Chosen will die along with me, leaving you with no choice but to wait longer for your sister to be revived. Are you really willing to risk that?" Riku explains in a calm tone.

Mithos grins at the explanation Riku gave him, pointing out in an impressed tone "Well-played, Elemental Overlord. But I never had any intention of fighting against you now, so lower your sword." The teenage Overlord takes pause at these words to read the half-elves' intentions, and then dispels his blade without another thought.

"Hehe. Now then, I think we've both gotten almost everything we've wanted out of this little meeting, but before we depart there's just one more thing I want to ask of you." Mithos says. Riku stands in place and waits for him to ask the question with a light scowl on his face. "What benefits do you think will arise if the worlds were to reunited?"

Riku extends his arms out on both sides of his body and comments "For one, the worlds will no longer have to fight for control of mana." Mithos immediately counters this point by reminding him "Instead, they will simply fight each other again to control the magitek weapons buried around both worlds. The way things are now, the worlds may be fighting, but it's a mostly indirect conflict. Humans aren't trying to kill each other for control, and even though Tethe'alla is aware of Sylvarant they haven't tried to impede the progress of the Chosen's journey."

"Heh, Sheena would tell you otherwise." Riku comments, to which Mithos replies with "One failure of an assassin doesn't negate 4,000 years of negated conflict between humans. My methods have prevented needless war."

"Right, because subjugating and farming humans in your little ranches is a much better alternative. We have a name in history for people like you on our world, Mithos." Riku says in an incredibly unamused tone of voice. Mithos replies without a care in his thoughts of words "Humanity desperately needed to be humbled by the race they tried to control, such extremes were necessary for that to be accomplished."

Riku growls at Mithos' and tightly clenches his right hand into a fist, but doesn't say anything at the moment. The half-elf comments "If by some miracle the worlds were reunited and the Chosen system was disbanded, what do you and the Chosen's group plan to do to stop humanity from destroying each other again? Another thousand year war is all that awaits if that were to happen. But if you have another solution, I'd be glad to hear it."

"Well that's simple, you just have to…" Riku immediately goes for an answer, but midway through his sentence he found himself at a loss for words. After everything else he had argued against with Mithos, it was this question that the teenage Overlord couldn't answer at all. He stares blankly at the half-elf as he smiles, and after a few more seconds Mithos says "As I suspected, you haven't considered the consequences of your little venture."

Riku wanted to reply, with all of his might he wanted to shut Mithos up and end this matter here and now…But that would prove nothing. The half-elf had given him the first legitimate question in this entire conversation, and if he didn't find an answer for this he would be considered a fool for killing Mithos.

The noise of footsteps is then heard down below, leading to both Riku and Mithos looking towards the entrance of Altessa's house to see Raine exiting it with a bag filled with research books. Mithos turns towards the teenage Overlord and says to him "I suppose we can end this now. I am going to let my partners know what happened here between us and then return before the others awaken. Meanwhile, you can go back down and continue to pretend to be the messiah that tries desperately to solve every problem on his own."

Mithos flies off with his angel wings as Riku turns and gives him one final, surprised glare. With his face twitching in anger, the teenage Overlord could only proceed to let out a tired sigh as he loosened his muscles and turned towards the bottom of the cliff side. Leaping quietly off the rock, the teenage Overlord gently levitates himself behind Raine and lands. The half-elf was busy digging into her bag to make sure that she had all of her supplies, while Riku lifts his right hand up and says "Hey Raine, what're you doing up?"

The half-elf flinches in surprise and nearly spills some of her books out of her bag as she pulls her arms out. Once she collects herself, she recognizes Riku's voice and lets out a relieved sigh, saying to him in a quiet tone "Oh, it's just you Riku…I forgot you were keeping watch."

Raine turns around to look at the teenage Overlord, saying to him honestly "I'm going somewhere for a bit." Riku nods his head in understanding and comments "You're going to find the Otherworld Gate, aren't you?"

"…Heh, my intentions were obvious, weren't they?" Raine comments in a rather pleased yet embarrassed voice. Looking at the teenage Overlord with a serious expression, the half-elf asks of him "Please, can you not tell anyone that I'm leaving for a bit?"

Riku walks up to Raine and places one hand on her right shoulder, looking her straight in the eyes with a smile on his face as he mentions "This is important for you to deal with, I can understand that. But it won't take the group long to piece things together and come after you. For now though, you won't have to worry about me going back inside and telling anyone."

"I know that…But still, thank you for doing this for me. I'm going to take one of the Rheairds with me now, so good luck with your guard watch." Raine says, to which Riku replies with "Just don't try and run into any Desians or Papal Knights."

Raine reaches into her bag and pulls out her staff, extending it past her arm length while giving the teenage Overlord a confident smile and stating "I won't get into any trouble, but thanks for being concerned."

The half-elf looks at the teenage Overlord for a few seconds with her smile still present, and after a thankful nod she turns around and runs off towards the direction of the Rheairds. When Raine is far enough away, Riku says to himself "You aren't the only one who needs to find an answer, Raine…But at least I know you'll be successful…" With melancholy concerns on his mind, the teenage Overlord turned around and went back into Altessa's house for the time being…

_Next Time: My Sister, Your Sister_


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: The Tragedy of Alicia Combatir**

The morning arrived without much of a spectacle. The sun rose, and everyone in Altessa's house slowly began to awake from their nightly slumber. It was Tabitha and Altessa himself that made their appearance in the main room first, especially since Tabitha had to work on breakfast. The dwarf looks at the teenage Overlord, who was sitting at the southern end of the table with his back leaning against the edge of it, and says to him "Hmm, I didn't expect you to actually go through with your night watch."

"Did I look like someone who could fall asleep easily?" Riku replies calmly, leading to the dwarf laughing and mentioning "Not at all, it's just unusual for a human to not require sleep."

"If you don't have an answer, then neither do I." The teenage Overlord then says in a joking tone as Zelos stretches his arms and enters the room. After smacking his lips, suavely, of course, the Chosen of Tethe'alla looks at Riku and says "Oh hey buddy! How's it going today?"

Zelos' was being surprisingly friendly with the teenage Overlord, which is a suspicious act that immediately grabbed Riku's attention. "Hey Zelos, are you awake at all? You usually don't talk that nicely to a guy." The Chosen's eyes widen in surprise and disappointment as he looks at the boy and says to him "Whaaaa? Can't I just ask someone how they are doing? You hurt my feelings Riku…" Zelos plays the whole thing off with little concern in his voice.

"E-Errr, sorry about that." Riku drops his suspicions once Zelos acts like his goofy ol' self and apologizes in a stuttering voice. Before he can say anything else though, Genis rushes between Regal and Sheena as they leave the guest room, saying in a panicked tone of voice to everyone "Has anyone seen Raine? S-She wasn't in her bed when I got up!"

Sheena looks at Genis and asks "Raine's missing? You sure about that Genis? She could just be outside getting some early morning fresh air." The half-elf turns towards the ninja and shakes his head before pumping his fists up and down and stating "It's not just her who vanished! Her bag is gone as well!"

"…That is definitely a cause for concern." Regal mentions in a serious tone. Meanwhile, Zelos looks over at Riku and says to him "Hey, you were on watch duty last night. How did she slip by unnoticed?"

The teenage Overlord flinches momentarily as all eyes focus on him. In a matter of seconds, Riku is forced to come up with an excuse to keep his promise to Raine. "I was on top of Altessa's house keeping watch for part of the night. When I looked away, that must have been when Raine took off."

"BUT RIKU, I-" Tabitha was about to spill the beans about what happened last night, but the teenage Overlord subtly jolted his left pointer finger to the right and sent off a bolt of electricity to quiet the girl while simultaneously rising up to his feet and saying "We should try and look around, there's no way she didn't leave behind a hint about where she went."

"There's not much ground to cover, but it would be wise to look around." Regal states, though he glanced briefly at the teenage Overlord in a suspect manner. The group then scatters around the house to try and find any signs of where Raine went off to. During this period of time, Colette woke Lloyd up urgently and dragged him outside the house by the time the group has gathered there.

"Ok, what's going on here? What happened to the Professor?" Lloyd asks in a tone of tired confusion. Genis walks closer to his friend and lifts a note up, commenting in a concerned voice "It seems Raine left a note saying she had something she wanted to investigate…But she left without saying anything."

"Riku, how did she escape your watch?" Lloyd asks, and the teenage Overlord glares at him and comments "I already told everyone else, she must have left when I wasn't looking at the door."

"I DO BELIEVE THAT RAINE AND-" Tabitha is once again ready to reveal what happened last night, but a quick glance from Riku made her reconsider her words as she instead mentioned "FORTUNATELY FOR US, I HAPPENED TO BE WATCHING THE ENTRANCE LAST NIGHT. RAINE LEFT FOR THE SOUTH WITH ONE OF THE RHEAIRDS."

"…The direction of Altamira." Regal comments in a realizing tone. Zelos leans one hand against his sword handle and comments "Now that you mention it, Her Highness was acting just a bit strange yesterday. She was going on and on about the Otherworldly Gate."

Lloyd ponders this information for a bit as Genis asks "What should we do Lloyd? I'm worried about her being by herself…" The boy looks at his friend and comments "Let's go find her. We can't afford to be separated right now."

Mithos, who had been mostly quiet since he got back from his little departure, asks of Lloyd "Ah…um…will you take me with you?" His naturally fake tone of nervousness made Riku sick. Genis replies "What are saying? It's too dangerous for you, Mithos."

"I know that, but I'm worried about her. There are monsters all over Tethe'alla right now. This is the first time I've met another half-elf besides me, so…I want her to be okay." Mithos says. As Lloyd then stands there thinking about what to do, Riku walks up behind Mithos and slaps him behind the back gently, taking him by surprise as the teenage Overlord wraps his left arm around his back and says with a bright smile "Come on Lloyd! Let's let our good new friend Mithos join us!"

"All right, guess there's no harm." Lloyd replies with a more natural smile on his face. As Riku backs his hand away from Mithos the half-elf says in an appreciative tone "Thank you, Lloyd!" Lloyd nods his head and explains "Any friend of Genis is a friend of mine."

This surprised Mithos for a couple reasons, and after a moment of hesitation he turns to Genis and says "Let's do our best, Genis!" Genis nods his head and says in response "Thank you, Mithos…"

Lloyd is quick to point out "By the way, we're going to have Mithos ride on your Rheaird, Genis. I hope that's not a problem." Genis nods his head again and says enthusiastically "Okay! Let's go!"

The group began to swiftly depart, but before they went too far Altessa stopped both Lloyd and Presea with a simple "Wait." Lloyd glances back at the dwarf as he walks forward and extends his right hand out, showing the boy a golden Key Crest. "This is for Presea…" He explains in a regretful tone.

"Altessa…" Lloyd says in quiet surprise. "…It's hardly enough to call it an apology, but I went ahead and made one last night. It will be more reliable than the make-shift one she has now." Lloyd takes the Key Crest from Altessa after the dwarf explained himself, and upon turning to face Presea he says "Are you ok with accepting this, Presea?"

The girl takes a moment to pause in thought, and she glances directly at the dwarf to see his regretful expression. With hesitation on her mind, she takes the Key Crest from Lloyd and says quietly to Altessa "…T-Thank you…"

Presea and Lloyd run off to join with the rest of the group, while Tabitha says to her master "HMMM, I WONDER WHY RIKU DIDN'T WANT ME TO MENTION THAT I SAW HIM LETTING RAINE GO LAST NIGHT?" These words make Altessa's eyebrows raise before he turns towards his creation and comments in a puzzled tone "Wait, what did you say Tabitha?"

After getting onto their Rheairds, everyone took off towards the southern skies in search of Raine. With everything Regal and Zelos suggested, the obvious destination was the famous city of Altamira, where they'd hopefully either find Raine or get more information about the Otherworldly Gate. The trip takes a good fifteen minutes, and once they can see the city Lloyd is amazed by how the place looks.

"Wow! It's almost as pretty as Meltokio! …Hey, what's that over there?" Lloyd glances at a bright building and a series of strange and large contraptions. Zelos rides up beside Lloyd and says to him "Heh, that right there is the epicenter of about everything a man can want in life. Thrills, gambling, and plenty of women!"

"Sounds like you have experience here, Zelos…" Lloyd realizes what he said and blankly stares forward while commenting "…Why am I even surprised." With that little matter out of the way, the group landed at the entrance of Altamira and got off the Rheairds. As they approached the welcoming and tall orange stone gate, Regal suddenly paused in place and commented "…I'm sorry, but I'm going to wait here."

Lloyd glances back at Regal and asks "Huh? What's up?" The man goes surprisingly silent, leading to a prolonged period of awkwardness between everyone before Zelos comments "Won't say why, huh? Well, if you don't want to talk about it, that's your business. Lloyd, he doesn't really need to be with us, let's leave him alone."

"I guess so. We'll catch you on the way out, Regal." Lloyd says, and the man nods his head to thank him and Zelos for the empathy. The group then walk into Altamira, with the goal of finding Raine planted in their heads. As they walk through the area, Presea glances up and to the right at the seven-story tall hotel, finding herself captivated by it's beauty and stature to the point that she fails to notice a man walking out from the building.

She runs right into him and bumps him back a couple feet, leading to her then snapping her head forward and looking awkwardly at the man she ran into. He was an elderly figure with a comfortable looking red suit and bushy grey mustache. His hair was slicked back and had a bit of a glow to it, and overall he looked very refined in stature. The man brushes the side of his coat and glances at Presea, which causes his face to suddenly go pale in shock.

"I'm sorry sir, I wasn't paying attention…" Presea apologizes for her mistake in a polite tone, but the man only continues to stare at her in sheer disbelief before commenting "…Impossible…Alicia, is that really you?"

This name makes Presea's eyes widen in a frozen position for a few seconds before she blurts out "You…know Alicia?!" The reaction of the girl caused the man to relax for a moment, albeit with confusion presenting itself as he says "What? Wait, then who are…?"

Presea quickly explains "Alicia is my…sister…" The man's eyes go blank with fright, and as he glances down at the innocent girl he found himself barely able to say what he wanted to. But the truth was better than a lie, he was taught, and he explains in a gentle tone "…I'm terribly sorry to say this. The one known as Alicia Combatir passed away quite some time ago. As of now, she couldn't possibly be standing here…"

Presea's face goes blank with disbelief, leading to her stumbling back a couple feet out of her own control as she proclaims "…P-P-Passed away?!" With the girl frozen with distraught, Lloyd looks at the man and asks "What happened to her?"

The man hangs his head low slightly and explains in a melancholy tone "Alicia came to work in the service of the noble Bryant family, but she was caught up in an unfortunate incident that led to her death." Colette asks urgently "How did she die?!"

The man shakes his head and replies "I dare not speak the details. Please forgive me." He then reaches into his suit and pulls out a card that he hands over to Lloyd, explaining further "Alicia's grave lies in the Sky Terrace of the Lezareno Company headquarters. Please stop by there if you have the time. Alicia would surely be pleased to receive a visit from her younger sister. If you show this to the receptionists, they should let you through."

The man departs, in the midst of his shock and sadness forgetting to tell the group his name. Genis looks at the distraught Presea and then comments "Younger sister? Presea, I thought you were the older one?" The girl didn't reply, her body was entirely motionless out of distress.

"We should head to the grave. We can't just leave Presea like this." Lloyd comments in an empathetic tone, leading to Zelos saying "I agree. Seeing sweet little Presea looking this down is affecting me as well. Let's go find the ferry, it should be able to take us to the Lezareno Company building."

With Genis' help, Presea is able to follow the group along. Meanwhile, at the entrance to Altamira, Regal stops peeking out from behind a wall and lets out a tired sigh, saying to himself "George…I'm sorry I couldn't show myself."

The group makes it to the ferry and manage to group themselves onto it despite how small it is. With a quick look at the controls, Zelos manages to set the ferry on a straight course to the Lezareno Company building. The boat jerks slightly before it carries forward, gliding along the water at such a calm pace that the group couldn't feel it move at all.

It takes a good five minutes for the group to approach the gigantic company building, but instead of docking outside the building the ferry is carried into a canal underneath it that takes them inside the building itself. The ferry stops at a singular end, and everyone is able to get a good feel of the atmosphere as they exit. The air was fresh, and the structure had a mixture of ancient stone and modern metals. It was definitely a place that focused on both the past and the present.

Lloyd broke off from the rest of the group with Presea and Genis prematurely, heading for the elevator when an armored guard similar to one of the Papal Knights approaches him and holds his right hand up. "I'm sorry, but may I ask your reason for visiting our company today?" He was polite in his mannerisms, leading to Lloyd quietly pulling out the card George gave him and holding it out as he says "We want to go to the Sky Terrace, if that's ok."

The soldier looks at the card and says in a tone of surprise "This is George's…!" The soldier pulls back a bit and says "My deepest apologies. Please, go on inside." After the soldier backs off, the group makes their way for the elevator to the left, cramming themselves inside of it and heading straight for the roof of the building. The ride is smooth and quick, and when the doors open up everyone is greeted by a breathtaking view of the sky.

Presea immediately rushes ahead of everything without saying a word, and the group quickly follows behind her towards the center of the terrace, which was decorated beautifully with palm trees, perfectly trimmed grass, and a shrine past a tiny pond of pure water. In front of the pond was a perfectly created gravestone. At the bottom of the grave was a stone plate with the words _"Alicia Combatir, the most loyal and innocent person I ever knew."_

Presea kneels in front of the grave in sheer disbelief of what she was witnessing. To her, there was no such thing as reality at the moment, for it just didn't feel right for something like this to exist. "Alicia…what happened to you?" Presea wanted to cry, but found it incredibly difficult to do so at the moment.

Lloyd, who placed an empathetic hand on Presea's right shoulder as he kneels down, looks at the front of Alicia's grave and notices a familiar red jewel placed into it. "An Exsphere?" He comments in a puzzled tone. Presea looks up at the Exsphere and stands upright, saying in a bewildered tone "Why? Why is there an Exsphere?"

As Presea was about to reach for the Exsphere, the jewel released a bright light, and within seconds the thin visage of someone began to form in front of the grave. She was a girl about Colette's height but Sheena's age. She wore a beautiful black and white maid's outfit with knee-high black stockings and pearl-like shoes. Her hair was pink like Presea's, but with smaller pig-tails. She looked down at Presea with her brown eyes and commented in a surprised and delighted tone "Presea? …Sis! It's you, isn't it?"

Presea steps back slightly as she lets out a frightened gasp. The girl standing before her recognized her by name, but the appearance of the girl was much different than the memories Presea held dear to her heart. After a momentary reminder of the days when she would play with a little girl that was a foot shorter than her but had the same hairstyle as the one floating in front of her, Presea's heart became hollow with sorrow as her eyes began to well up in tears and she blurted out in disbelief "Alicia?!"

The phantom girl folding her hands in front of her chest and smiled brightly, her own tears trickling down her face as she said "I'm so happy I can see you again before I disappear…" Presea shook her head in confusion while asking "What's going on? Are you still alive?!"

Alicia stopped crying for a moment and looked down at Presea, saying to her in a distressed tone of voice "I…I exist only in the Exsphere. Soon, even my consciousness will be gone. The Exsphere killed my body and absorbed my consciousness."

Presea clenches her fists together and admits "…I can't believe you've become a victim of the Exsphere as well…" As tears continue to trickle down Presea's face, Alicia looks at her with solemn eyes and asks of her "Presea, I know we haven't seen each other in a while…But I ask of you to fulfill a request before I disappear. Please, find my master. Please find Master Bryant!"

"Bryant? The noble you went to serve?" Presea asks. Alicia nods her head, but as she began to explain herself her visage faded in and out of existence "Yes. By killing me, he…" She doesn't get to finish her sentence, leading to a confused Presea extending her right arm out to the grave and exclaiming "Alicia! He killed you?! Please, tell me what happened!"

Alicia appears again for a few more seconds to beg of her sister "Please…Presea…" As she began to fade away, Presea stepped forward and unconsciously held her arms out as though she wanted to embrace Alicia in a hug, reaching for the part of her sister's body where the head would have been were she still the young girl she grew-up alongside back at Ozette. But even if Alicia hadn't faded away in that moment, Presea would be hugging nothing but empty air.

Presea widens her eyes again, realizing just what exactly she was doing in that particular moment before she stared blankly at the grave and pulled her arms back, collapsing onto her knees with her head held back and tears trickling down the sides of her face. Everyone else was silent behind her, sharing empathy at the lose of a departed one especially in the case of Lloyd, who takes a glance at his Expshere and grits his teeth in anger at everything Yggdrasill has done to the world.

Presea looks at the grave one more time and thinks back to the past. Cheerful days of running around and having fun with the young Alicia were the most prominent things in her head, and then the horror of reality struck her deeply. How did Alicia perceive her older sister when she was entrapped by the Expshere? Presea had not aged at all, while time passed for Alicia and the world she continued to live in…The visage projected from the Exsphere was proof enough of this, for Alicia had grown beautiful and mature while Presea still had a child's physique.

And in the end, Alicia ended up being another victim of the Exsphere, killed in spite of her undying loyalty to the man known only as "Bryant". This gave Presea something to focus her emotions on, and as the tears dried away from her face she forced herself back upright and turned to look at Lloyd, asking him with all of her might "Please, help me find Alicia's killer."

Understanding the pain Presea has experienced, Lloyd doesn't hesitate to nod his head and reply "Of course. We'll beat this Bryant guy to a pulp and drag him back here!" Genis also backs-up his friend by mentioning "Yeah! I won't let him get away with killing your sister!"

Presea looks at her two friends, smiling at their selfless desire to help and saying in an appreciative tone "…Thank you." With a new mission in mind, the group starts to leave the Sky Terrace, with Mithos taking one quick glance at the grave, which doesn't escape Genis' attention as he asks "What's wrong?"

"…Exspheres are terrible things, aren't they?" Mithos says, and after a moment of looking sorrowfully at his own Exsphere and remembering whose life was taken to make this one exist he replies with a melancholy "Yeah…"

Riku takes one look at Alicia's Exsphere as those two talked about it, thinking to himself as he recalled last night's discussion with Mithos _"…Could I revive Alicia? I would be doing it for Presea, who unlike Mithos is innocent in the grand scheme of things…But would it be fair to revive one innocent and leave another dead? With the amount of stress a single revive would likely put on my body, there's no way I could do more than one on this journey…"_

"…_Who am I kidding? It's impossible to revive Alicia if she no longer has her body…I'm sorry to both you and Presea, If I could revive you, maybe it'd be easier to decide this…" _Riku dispels his line of thinking after her mentally apologizes to Alicia, and then goes off to meet up with the rest of the group. As he departs, Alicia's voice whispers out one more time _"Who was that? …How could I hear his thoughts?" _

Leaving Alicia's grave behind for now, the group heads back down the elevator to resume their search for Raine, seeing as Presea was now not in dire spirits. When the group end up at the bottom floor, they manage to come across two generic looking employees conversing about something convenient. "Isn't the Otherworldly Gate going to open tonight?" One man says.

"Man, I don't like thinking about that. It could suck us over into the hellish land of Sylvarant." The other guy says. Lloyd quickly runs over to those guys and says "Excuse me. That Otherworldly Gate you were talking about just now, where is it?"

One of the guys looks at Lloyd in a flabbergasted manner and blurts out "Who the hell are you?" Mithos tries to handle the matter with a little more tact, and says to the two men "I apologize. We'd like to go see the Otherworldly Gate. Would you be kind enough to tell us where it is?"

The man changes his mood instantly, explaining to the group as they approach "If you're looking for the Otherworldly Gate, it's to the east of this city. There are huge rocks all over it. You can't miss it. But tonight's a full moon. If the legend is true, then the gate will open and you'll be sucked into the world of Sylvarant!"

"I wonder if Raine is there." Mithos points out, while Lloyd shrugs his shoulders and points out "Who knows. But it's the only clue we have. Let's at least take a look." Everyone is about to head back for the ferry, but then Riku grabs Lloyd by his thin white scarf gently to stop him.

"Hang on a second there Lloyd, we shouldn't go for the gate quite yet." Riku suggest, leading to Lloyd turning around and saying in a puzzled tone "Huh? Why not?" The teenage Overlord explains in a concise manner "Raine likely heard about the full moon affecting the Otherworldly Gate, so I wouldn't believe that she'd go there until night comes. Considering you all just got up an hour ago, we probably have at least eight hours before Raine would appear at the gate…Assuming I'm correct about the lunar cycle here."

"You sure about that? Wouldn't it be a good idea to try and check the gate just in case she went there early?" Zelos suggests. "Well I guess we could try that. I don't know, we just have a lot of time to waste before the gate supposedly opens up."

Riku closes his eyelids and thinks to himself _"What DID they do between Altamira and the Otherworldly Gate? Seriously, they never explained this." _The teenage Overlord then snaps his fingers and says to the group "Hey! Maybe there's a library around here we can use to study the Otherworldly Gate! Either we'll find Raine there, or at the very least we'll be well informed on the place!"

"But what about Regal? We can't just leave him waiting at the entrance for us." Sheena says, leading to Riku commenting in a realizing tone "Oh yeah, that's right. Ummm…" As he awkwardly tries to think how to handle that matter, Zelos waves his hand out and offers to the group "How about Lloyd, Riku, Genis, and Mithos stay here and research the Otherworldly Gate while the rest of us meet up with Regal up front. We'll take some of the Rheairds and check the gate, and then perform a couple quick checks at Sybak and Mizuho to see if Raine went there."

"That sounds like a better plan than any, as much as I hate to admit it, Zelos." Sheena says, but after a moment of realization she looks angrily at the Chosen and blurts out "Hey! You're just trying to take all the females with you! I almost fell for it too!"

Zelos snaps his fingers and smirks, saying in a somewhat disappointed tone "Can't slip anything past you, can I Sheena? Oh fine, you can stay with Lloyd and the others. But I think Colette should stick with us just in case Cruxis change their minds AGAIN and try to capture her. A mobile target is better than a stationary one, as they say."

"…I have never heard anyone say that." Riku stoically points out, leading to Zelos commenting in response "…We're just going to go now." Zelos, Presea and Colette leave through the ferry out of the building, with Lloyd giving Colette a quick "Be careful" before she departs all the way.

For the next few hours, Lloyd and his group stick to the Lazereno Company's Library, trying their hardest to find anything related to the Otherworldly Gate. When they are unsuccessful even after scouring every book in the area, they head out of the building and try to gathered information from any citizen they run across, leading to another couple hours of time wasted when they mostly get the same information they already knew.

Night begins to fall upon Tethe'alla by the time Zelos and his group make it back to Altamira's front gates, where Lloyd and his group meet up and say "Well, we didn't come up with anything. Did you find Raine or her Rheaird?"

Zelos shakes his head and mentions "Not a single sign of her. Looks like Riku might've been right on this one, we'll just need to head back there now that the full moon is up." The teenage Overlord turns his head to look at the sky, where the bright white light from the moon gleams off of his eyes. "Then we need to hurry, especially if what they said about the gate is true."

With urgency on their minds, the group boarded the Rheairds and quickly took off for the Otherworldly Gate to the east of Altamira. As the two men stated, it was easy to see the gate thanks to the tall and archaic brown stones gathered around what appeared to be a buried runic seal. And as Riku correctly predicted, Raine was standing in plain sight close to the seal with most of her books and supplies scattered about as she tried to examine the entirety of the gate.

The group landed their Rheairds and used the wing pack to store them before approaching Raine. Lloyd took the lead and commented "Professor?" to try and grab her attention. Raine flinches in fright and immediately flips herself around, saying in a puzzled voice "Everyone! Why are you all here?"

Genis says in a disbelieving voice "Why do you think we're here? I-I mean we were worried about you!" Mithos adds on to his friend's concerns by mentioning "It's dangerous to come here alone. As a fellow half-elf, I can't just leave you here by yourself."

"Why did you come here professor?" Colette asks, which leads to Raine hanging her head slightly in a melancholy manner before she replies to the group "…This is where Genis and I were abandoned."

This bit of news is puzzling to most of the group, especially to Genis, and Lloyd in particular brings up "What are you talking about? You two are from Sylvarant." Raine shakes her head and explains concisely "I happened to catch sight of this place when we rescued Colette from Rodyle and it's been on my mind ever since. Then, when I heard Altessa's story of this place, I became certain. The images in my memory…the ruin I've been searching for all this time is this place."

"So what are you saying? The two of you were born in Tethe'alla?" Sheena asks. Genis shakes his head and blurts out in disbelief "It can't be! All of my memories are of Iselia! I don't know this world at all!"

Raine folds her arms and glances sadly at Genis, explaining to him to the best of her ability "…We were born and raised in the village of the elves, from which we were eventually ostracized. We were abandoned here because this place was said to be the path to the fabled Sylvarant."

"The village of the elves? But isn't that off-limits to anyone except pure elves?" Mithos asks. Raine says in response "Yes. I don't know the details of what happened, but I'm positive that I was left here along with Genis when he was just a newborn. And we eventually ended up Sylvarant…"

While Genis was reeling back from the revelation his sister gave him, a voice called out to the entire group "Then this time, let me send you to hell instead!" Lloyd immediately flips around in the direction of the voice and asks "Who's there?!"

Sheena recognizes the voice and turns alongside Lloyd to find Kuchinawa standing at the top of the nearby hill with his eyes burning with a furious glare. "W-What? Kuchinawa, what are you doing here?!" The ninja is silent for a few seconds as he raises his right hand into the air, saying in a bitter tone to his friend "My chance to avenge my parents' deaths has finally arrived."

At the command of his snapped fingers, about a few dozen Papal Knights swarm around the entire group, entrapping them there with little cause means of escape. As Sheena flipped her head back and forth she said in confusion "Avenge your parents? What?"

"Correct…" Kuchinawa callously says as he pulls a kunai out of his suit and points it at his fellow ninja. "You will die for killing my parents along with countless others when you failed to pact with Volt!"

"T-That's insane!" Sheena blurts out as her emotions on this matter becoming extremely conflicted. Lloyd pulls out his swords while saying to Kakinada "That was an accident! Why are you doing this now?"

"Accident?!" Kuchinawa furious exclaims at the group, further explaining himself by stating "I could have accepted things if she just failed to make a pact with Volt. But then, she failed to assassinate the Chosen of Sylvarant, thereby placing Mizuho in danger. Yet look at her now. She's made pacts with SIX SUMMON SPIRITS like she is some sort of expert!"

"You have it all wrong!" Colette exclaims in defense of her friend, where the angered Kuchinawa replies quickly with "Do I?! I think she wasn't really trying during the first pact-making! Because of that, she killed my parents and our people!"

Sheena hangs her head low in shame and comments "I did the best I could! I…" But her former friend would have none of that from her, and exclaimed to the Papal Knights "Enough excuses! Kill them all!"

The Knights were about to charge straight at the group with their weapons raised, but suddenly a ring of fire forms in front of them all. At least ten Knights are burned alive by coming in contact with the flames, their armor scalding into their flesh and leaving them as nothing more than metallic skeletons on the ground once the process is complete. The rest of the Knights take pause, and glance into the ring of fire, where they find Riku lowering his right hand after carving the ring of fire into the grass.

"That's enough Kuchinawa, you won't be having your petty revenge anytime soon." Riku bluntly says to the ninja, but upon glancing at Kuchinawa the teenage Overlord finds him reaching into his outfit to pull out a blue seal. "You think you are the only one who can control elements, Overlord? Behold the arts of Mizuho clan!"

With a slam of the seal against the ground, Kuchinawa summons forth a lithe fleshy monster with a water-like mill attached to it's back. In a matter of seconds the atmosphere is filled with rain that dissolves the fire in front of him. Kuchinawa wastes little time in demanding of the Papal Knights "Now, no more distractions. END THEM!"

Riku quickly raised his right pointer finger into the air and thought to himself _"Fine then Kuchinawa, if that's how you want to do this…I'll stop you before-" _"Kuchinawa! Please! Don't drag them into this! I'm the one you despise, right? Then I'm the only one you need to kill!" Sheena exclaims with all of her might.

Kuchinawa extends his hand out of interest in what Sheena had to say, leading to the Papal Knights stopping in place and waiting for further orders. "Sheena, what the hell are you saying?!" Lloyd blurts out in sheer disbelief.

"It's okay Lloyd…Kuchinawa, please!" Sheena begs of her former friend to take her words into consideration, while behind her Riku was glancing at the girl in disbelief while thinking _"…I should have just killed him without hesitation. Removing him is an interference that won't hurt the world at all…"_

Kuchinawa pauses to think about this matter for a bit as the rain subsides, but as he was in the midst of this process he along with everyone else failed to notice the full moon perfectly aligning with the seal. The moon glows brightly, sending forth a piercing beam of light that crashes into an invisible force and converges into the shape of a sphere, and this very sphere stretches out into multiple strands of foreign electricity that touch the tips of the stones surrounding the seal.

The engravings on the stones light up with a pale green glow, and from this event the area begins to shake as a large purple void surrounded by an ethereal white and green edge begins to form from in the center of it. Raine's many tools and books are swiftly sucked into the void, and as Zelos glances back and forth between the void and Sheena's ridiculous antics he finally has enough and sheathes his sword while exclaiming "You've got to be kiddin' me! Enough of this, Sheena!"

Zelos doesn't waste any time in sprinting at the conflicted Sheena and grabbing her by the right arm. Sheena doesn't get a chance to say anything more than a surprised exclamation as Zelos flips around and drags Sheena towards the rift. The Chosen exclaims to his pal "Lloyd! Get a move on!" As he runs into the void and both he and Sheena instantly vanish through it upon being converted into a series of neon sparks.

Lloyd sheathes his swords and says to the group "Everybody, let's get into that gate!" He immediately turns around and runs for the gate, with everyone following one after the other soon enough. Kuchinawa tries to stop the group by sending the knights after them, but Riku punches the ground to create a large crack that sends forth a circular plume of dirt that blinds and stops the knights long enough for him to get back up and leap onto the rift the moment the event comes to a sudden end.

With all of his targets having vanished into the Otherworldly Gate, Kuchinawa can only stand dumbfounded at the matter as he clenches his fist in anger and proclaims "Damn them! The guardian signature trail disappeared! They've escaped into Sylvarant!"

_Next Time: Return to the Declining World_


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: The World of Sylvarant**

For a brief moment, Riku goes unconscious after entering the Otherworldly Gate. He doesn't feel anything as he awakens, as though his body had become as light as a feather. As he opens his eyes, he finds himself amidst a swirling mass of glowing violet energy. Around him were Lloyd and the rest of the group, who were simultaneously floating around and awakening from their unconscious state.

"Huh? Where are we?" The teenage Overlord asks in a puzzled state. He looks around, thinking for a moment that he had somehow ended up in purgatory before he remember the Otherworldly Gate and narrowed his eyes while saying in a worried voice "Oh no…"

Turning around quickly, Riku is able to see that he and the rest of the group are rapidly approaching the ground, enveloped by a comet-like projection of energy. "Everyone, brace yourself!"

The teenage Overlord summons forth plenty of rocks around his body in a sphere, while everyone else prepares their Guardian spells at precisely the right moment, with Genis covering Mithos along with himself. The comet crashes into the ground, but somehow manages to not create a crater in the impact as it breaks apart and slams the group straight onto their backs or faces.

Even with the combination of their protection and the Exspheres for everyone but Riku, the impact stung quite a bit as vibrations shook through the spines of anyone who landed on their back. "Ow ow ow!" Zelos blurts out in a rather overreacting manner.

After a few seconds of groans being spread amongst the group they started to rise back onto their feet. Lloyd rubs the back of his head and says in a pained tone "Argh…Never doing that again…" Regal, who was sturdier than the rest, was able to get his bearings faster and look around the flowing grassy plain before he asked "…Where are we?"

"…Let me see if I can identify something from that hill." Raine slowly walks to the top of the nearby grass knoll, where she finds in the distance an active port town with a few archaic stone buildings and a lighthouse out near the docks. With the smell of sea water being brought to her by the wind, Raine is able to say with certainty "It seems we've landed close to Palmacosta…"

Excitedly, Colette says "We're back in Sylvarant!" While beside her Genis looks at the warm air around him and comments in addition to what his friend mentioned "The mana level seems to have risen, but it's definitely Sylvarant."

Zelos jokes around about the matter by saying "Heh, I never would have thought I'd get to the other side that way!" He is then swiftly met with a punch to the gut from a rather angry Sheena, which causes him to lurch forward in pain and let out a raspy breath as the ninja clenches her fists and proclaims "Zelos, what the hell did you do that for?!"

The Chosen slowly stands back upright as all eyes focus on him and Sheena, leading to Zelos stating in a bewildered tone "Excuse me? Don't tell me you were serious about dying back there." Sheena glances at Zelos in a nervous manner and comments quietly "Well…"

"Come on now, it's obvious those guys would have come after us regardless of whether or not you died." Zelos doesn't give the answer so Sheena can think about the matter for a moment, leading to her answering in a stunned tone of voice "Oh yeah, Kuchinawa was working with the Pope, wasn't he?"

Raine adds her own thoughts into the matter after she gets back down from the knoll "Those assassins he had with him were the Papal Knights, that much I'm certain of. To think that so many of our enemies would be working together…" Colette walks up to Sheena after the professor was done talking, and after clasping the ninja's hands and raising them up with a smile on her face the Chosen asks of her friend "Sheena, please don't do something like that again. Don't make the same mistake I did. Nothing good will come from you sacrificing your life."

"Colette's absolutely right. You should thank Zelos, Sheena." Lloyd points out. As much as Sheena hated to be indebted to the Chosen of Tethe'alla, she glanced at him after Colette let go of her hands and said in a nervous tone of voice "Th…Thank you, Zelos."

Zelos basked in the moment as expected of him, grinning brightly as he jokingly said "Come on now, would it hurt you to give me a kiss or two?" This remark is met with yet another punch to the gut from Sheena, though this one was lighter in strength and a little more justified. Presea shows no mercy to the Chosen as she comments "Zelos…you're horrible."

As Zelos groans in pain and Sheena lets out an annoyed growl, Mithos looks at Lloyd and asks of him "Umm…What are we gonna do now?" Lloyd replies as he glances at his friends "Mithos has a point…Hmm, maybe we should find out what the Desians are up to while we're around?"

"That's a good idea Lloyd, but we can't drag Mithos into this." Genis responds with concern towards his fellow half-elf. Colette chimes in with a rather good suggestion "Hey! Since we're near Palmacosta, why don't we ask Neil to take care of him for a while?"

"Neil? Oh yeah, good idea Colette." Lloyd replies with a smile, but Mithos has some objections to the matter as he bravely proclaims "But I want to help fight too!" Genis quickly glances at Mithos in a panicked manner and says "What are you saying? This journey is dangerous even if you had an Exsphere or Riku's powers."

Raine backs up her brother by mentioning "He's right Mithos. If you had an Exsphere, we'd probably be more inclined to have you with us. But we do appreciate your sentiment." Mithos hangs his head low slightly and says in a disappointed tone "…I suppose you're right. I understand…"

With little else to say for the moment, the group began to depart for Palmacosta, but before they went too far Raine stopped Riku with a simple and quiet "Wait a second Riku…" The teenage Overlord turns around and looks at the professor, asking in a puzzled tone as she has a smile on her face "What is it?"

Raine walks up to Riku and gives him a brief but warm hug, pulling back and saying in an appreciative tone as the teenage Overlord blinks a few times in confusion "Thank you for not telling them where I was going. Because of the time I was given, I was able to clear up a lot of questions about my own past."

"U-Ummm, no problem Raine." Riku was surprisingly flustered by Raine's hug, which led to his response sounding a little stuttered in turn. "They figured out where you were going and I had to kind of stall them in Altamira for a few hours, but I'm glad you were able to discover the truth."

"Well, questions still remain regarding why Genis and I were dropped into Sylvarant, but what I've discovered is a good enough start…But my personal issues can wait until we've dealt with the Summon Spirits. Again, thank you Riku." Raine calmly states.

"You're considering staying in Tethe'alla when the worlds part?" Riku asks, to which Raine replies after a moment of thought "Hmm, it's possible I might. It is something I have to think about. Right now, we're risking falling behind."

Before Raine and Riku turn around to catch-up with the group, Genis, who had watched the entire scene unfold, flips around with a greatly worried look on his face before he sprints off. It takes a few minutes for Raine and Riku to catch up, but once they do Lloyd immediately notices and asks "Hey, where did you two run off to?" Raine calmly replies "I was picking up some of my supplies that were dropped off by the gate. Riku decided to help to save time."

"Heh, alright then." Lloyd doesn't have anything else to say on the matter, but Zelos glanced at Riku with a brief smile on his face to show that he suspected something else. Nevertheless, he never brings it up as the group walks to Palmacosta. It doesn't take long for them to arrive at the seaside town, which had a surprisingly high number of people walking about. It wasn't as busy as say, Meltokio, but it was still bustling enough that walking through the town proved a little difficult considering the group's numbers.

Along the way, Colette started feeling a bit nostalgic and said to Lloyd "Remember when we arrived here? We took our first boat ride from Izoold with the Professor, Genis and Kra-" She stops before mentioning the last man's name, covering her mouth in an embarrassed manner with both hands before Lloyd replies in a barely upset manner "Yeah, that was a fun ride…Even if the boat smelled like fish. But we don't need to use that anymore since we got the Rheairds."

"…Come to think about it Lloyd, I forgot to compliment you on storing those in the wing pack. Had you not done so, we would be at a severe mobility disadvantage." Raine says. "Heh, not a problem professor." Lloyd accepts the compliment with a smile.

Afterwards, it doesn't long for the group to make it to the largest building in Palmacosta sans the lighthouse, where two armored guards let Lloyd and his friends enter without much of a worry. Once inside the confines of the government building, they find a young man with well-combed green hair, a cloth orange shirt, and grey pants. He looks at Lloyd and his friends in surprise, especially with their heavy increase in numbers, and says to them "Chosen One! Lloyd! How is the journey to release the seals going?"

Colette blushes nervously and comments "Ah, well…actually…" To avoid a panic by Colette slipping up, Lloyd quickly says to Neil "E…everything's going well! Anyways, we were wondering if you could take of one of our friends for a while." The boy makes a gesture towards Mithos afterwards.

"Hmmm? I certainly don't mind, but who is he?" Neil asks as he hangs one hand below his chin and thinks. Raine replies "He's traveling with us for a moment, but we're heading to an area that is too dangerous for him."

"Are you heading back to the Palmacosta Ranch?!" Neil blurts out in a tone of utter surprise. Genis, puzzled by the question, asks of Neil "What are you talking about? We destroyed that already."

"Huh, you're not? That's odd, we've recently received reports that Desians are wandering around the ruins. We've increased our security just in case." Neil explains himself, and with a curious perk of her head upward Colette ponders "I wonder if Magnius came back?"

"It don't know if it's related, but there are also reports that Desians are attacking the see route between Izoold and Palmacosta. They seem to be constructing some sort of giant infrastructure on the ocean floor." Neil gives out some more information, leading to Lloyd commenting "On the sea route? Didn't Altessa say Rodyle had his own Human Ranch on an island? Maybe he's working on that Mana Cannon…"

"Then we should take a look. It only makes sense, right?" Zelos points out, to which Sheena adds on by explaining "Even if it's not the Mana Cannon, this city will become the next Luin if the Palmacosta Ranch is operational again."

With those two facts in mind, Lloyd nods his head in agreement and says "Yeah. Let's head over there. We'll come back for Mithos later." Neil nods his head out of understanding towards their goals, and with a partially concerned expression he says "I know you can deal with the Desians, but good luck anyways."

As the group begins to leave the building, Mithos gives his regards to them all by mentioning "Genis. Be careful…No, that extends to all of you. Please make it back safely." Genis grins at his friend and says to him "Hehe, we'll be back in no time Mithos."

Mithos then walks up to Genis and reaches into his clothes, saying to his friend in a gentle tone of voice "Wait, before you go…" The half-elf holds out an ancient looking wood-carved flute, saying to Genis afterwards "It's…a memento of my sister who passed away." He felt a little hesitant saying that, as evidenced by him shyly looking away from his friend as he spoke.

Genis widens his eyes in disbelief and comments "W-What? You can't expect me to take something that precious from you!" Mithos looks at his friend and says to him "If you find yourself in danger, please play it. I don't know what it can do, but it may just be able to save you."

Genis glances down at the flute, and after a moment's hesitation he lifts his wiggling right hand up and takes the instrument into his grasp. Putting it away in his shirt pocket for now, Genis promises to his friend calmly "…Thank you Mithos. I will return it to you when we're done with the Desians here."

Leaving Mithos behind at the government building, the group exited Palmacosta almost as quickly as they entered it. Though Riku wanted to stay behind a little longer, his obligations to help the Chosen's group prevented him from doing so. The teenage Overlord gave a melancholy glance to the town, and thought to himself _"…Could I maybe get them to believe me?" _

His thoughts are broken off by Lloyd as he summons the Rheairds from the wing pack and says "Hey Riku, we're taking off now!" The teenage Overlord flips himself around and takes off of the ground while commenting in an understanding voice "R-Right! Let's go take care of the Desians!"

Taking off in the Rheairds, the group makes a straight line towards the ruins of the Palmacosta Human Ranch past the closest mountain range. It was clear that nothing survived whatever explosion took the ranch down, since only the heavily fortified walls were up around the former building. The group dives down and lands on the path leading up to the ranch to avoid detection. Back on their feet, everyone slowly approaches the ranch from the front, but when they arrive at the former entrance they are surprised by who they find.

Standing still as though they were waiting for the group to arrive was Botta and two Renegade soldiers. "Renegades!" Lloyd blurts out the obvious and draws out one of his swords as though expecting another battle, while Genis makes an observation "So that's it. Neil and the others don't know about the difference between Renegades and Desians."

Botta politely extends one hand out and gestures to the group before stating "We've been waiting for you." Regal finds this remark rather curious, and he comments in return "You were expecting us?"

"Does it really matter? We have more important things to discuss, such as joining forces." Botta's offer is met with a disapproving scoff from Raine, who explains her reaction in a calm manner as she folds her arms against her chest "You actually expect us to trust you after all you've done to Lloyd and Colette?"

"The circumstances have changed." A familiar voice calls out to the group, forcing them to turn their heads to the right and see Yuan walking into view. The man brushes aside his hair slightly and after he approaches Botta from the side he asks of the group "Tell me, do you know of the Giant Kharlan Tree?"

"The legendary Giant Tree said to have existed in the Holy Ground of Kharlan? It's the tree of life, which produces infinite mana." Zelos shows a surprising amount of knowledge on the subject, but the group is left befuddled on the matter still as Colette quickly points out "Isn't that just a fairy tale?"

Yuan turns towards the group and folds his arms as they relax, commenting to them "The Giant Kharlan Tree indeed existed. But the Kharlan War exhausted its mana supply and the tree wilted away. And now all that remains is its seed left in the Holy Ground of Kharlan."

"What are you referring to? The Soul of Mithos?" Riku asks. Botta replies this time, saying in a jolly voice "Heh, now that is a fairy tale. The Great Seed, the supposed 'Soul of Mithos' and the source of the world's mana, is the seed of the Giant Tree."

"The Great Seed is absolutely vital in order to reunite the two worlds." Yuan explains, which immediately makes all but Riku flinch in shock, with Lloyd exclaiming in disbelief "Reunite the two worlds?!"

"I believe I told you before, Yggdrasill is the creator of the two worlds. Originally it was one, but Yggdrasill ripped it asunder." Yuan says, to which Lloyd quietly points out "…How is it even possible for someone to split the world apart?"

"It was possible for Yggdrasill. The two worlds have managed to survive by vying for the small amount of mana that seeps forth from the Great Seed. But if the Great Seed germinates, the Giant Tree will be restored and the cycle will be put to an end." Yuan's explanation is swiftly met by an inquiry from Lloyd "How do we resurrect the Giant Tree?"

"The Great Seed is nearly dead. We must expose it to a large amount of mana in order to save it." Yuan sounds a little optimistic in his idea, but Raine is quick to shoot it down by explaining "There's no supply of mana like that to be found anywhere in the world. Even with all the Summon Spirits…"

"Cruxis' base, Derris-Kharlan, is a comet made from a giant mass of mana. It lies suspended in the sky high above this land. All we have to do is use that." Yuan explains, but this just begs yet another question from Lloyd. "Wait, if that's true, then why doesn't Yggdrasill revive the Giant Tree?"

"He cannot. He is using all of his resources on Derris-Kharlan on Martel for the sake of her resurrection." This surprises the group again, with Colette muttering out "What?" In quiet shock. "By using the power of a Cruxis Crystal, Martel's soul lives on, existing as a part of the Great Seed."

"If Martel awakens, the Great Seed will be absorbed into her and disappear. The reverse also holds true. In order to prevent that from happening, Yggdrasill protects the Great Seed with the seals of the Summon Spirits." Botta's explanation is followed up by Yuan adding on "That is why we were preventing Martel's revival. We will germinate the Greed Seed, and…"

For a brief and rather glaring moment, Yuan didn't finish his sentence, but it didn't matter as Lloyd stated "The Giant Kharlan Tree will be reborn." Colette asks afterwards "If that happens, will the two worlds become one again?"

Yuan gives a barely assured shake of his head and says "That I do not know. The only certainty present is that the world will end if the seed is not germinated." "So you plan to have little Miss Martel just up and disappear, huh?" Zelos comments in a very serious tone.

"…I see no harm in doing that. Martel is dead. If it weren't for Yggdrasill's persistence, her soul could have disappeared a long time ago." Yuan states in a none-too-pleasant voice. "But why? Why is Yggdrasill so obsessed with Martel?" Genis questions in a pressing tone.

"What does that matter? What's important is that we see to it that the Great Seed germinates." Yuan blows the question off in a somewhat suspect manner, but before anyone can press him on it Botta comments "Up till now, the Great Seed has been protected by the Summon Spirits of the declining world. Now that you have formed pacts with six Summon Spirits, the Great Seed's protection has almost unraveled."

"Hmm, so now your intentions add up. You want us to join up with you because Sheena is a summoner." Raine comments, and while this matter was thought over by the group Lloyd asks in a brutally honest tone "Yuan, are you with Cruxis? Or are you with the Renegades?"

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and even Yuan knew that it was the time to reveal the truth about his role in this conflict. "…I am with Cruxis, and I am also the leader of the Renegades." These words, meant to gain the final bits of trust from the group, made Zelos comment in a serious tone "So, you're a traitor, for lack of a better term."

There is a few moments of pause between the group members before Yuan asks "So, what's your decision?" It was Lloyd who took the lead in giving an answer, and said in a certain tone "Okay Yuan, we'll help."

"Lloyd, you're going to trust him?" Raine steps beside Lloyd and asks of him. Lloyd nods his head and states in response "He's revealed that he is a traitor. He's putting himself on the line, which is far more than I can say for Kratos…For Yuan, that has to mean something."

"I'll trust him, too." Colette adds her support to Lloyd's decision, leaving little disagreement from the rest of the group afterwards. Yuan comments afterwards "Now that that's settled, I do believe you were headed toward Rodyle's ranch, correct?"

"Hmm, you sure know a lot about what we're doing. Do you have a spy watching us?" Zelos comments. "No kidding. But either way, we have to stop that Mana Cannon before it's completed." Lloyd says in response.

Presea steps forward and mentions "We also have a debt to pay back to Rodyle." Yuan nods out of an understanding before commenting "The ranch and Mana Cannon systems should be interlinked. Disabling the control room should be our first priority."

"We have a reason to infiltrate Rodyle's ranch as well. We can guide you to the entrance, if you'd like." Botta offers politely. "We're teaming up, right? Of course, please take us there." Lloyd replies afterwards.

"Wait, why are you going to the ranch?" Sheena felt the need to ask this of their new allies. Yuan seriously comments "We need to make preparations to fire mana at the Great Seed. By the way, the Rheaird dimensional transfer system will be offline while we make our preparations. You'll have to wait until after we infiltrate the ranch if you want to get back to Tethe'alla."

"That's fine, we weren't planning on leaving anyways." Riku comments in a blunt tone towards Yuan. Yuan scoffs the comment off and says "I know we were enemies for a time, but you can trust me now, Elemental Overlord. Anyways, talk to Botta when you're ready, I shall leave it all in his hands."

Yuan gives a trustworthy glance to Botta, who nods his head and says simply "Understood." Yuan then leaves the ruins of the Palmacosta Ranch behind him as he wanders off to take care of some other affairs. Botta looks at the group, gesturing out politely as he says to them "Well then, whenever you're ready to take off."

There is no hesitation regarding departure, leading to Botta, the two Renegade soldiers near him, and the group taking off with their Rheairds towards the sea south of Palmacosta. They fly towards a lone island with a gigantic mechanical tower built onto it, and once they are on the sandy shore they get off their machines and gathered before the entrance in the side of the rocky base.

Before everyone enters, Botta makes a point of noting to the group "We have work to do on the mana reactor in here. If you head straight, it should connect to the ranch…One more thing though. It seems you've destroyed every ranch you've been to, but we need the mana reactor in order to sprout the Great Seed. Don't destroy this one."

Most of the group direct their glances at Raine, which leads to her commenting in a rather offended tone "…It's not like I destroy them for fun, you know." Botta and his two Renegade allies sprint straight for the insides of the ranch, leaving the rest of the group to discuss things over for a few seconds.

"In order to disable the Mana Cannon, we need to go to the control room." Regal comments. Lloyd nods his head and points towards the top of the ranch while commenting "My intuition tells me it's probably the room farthest in. So let's go up there." Colette praises Lloyd in a happy tone "You're amazing, Lloyd!"

Genis sarcastically replies "Yeah, we've been to enough of these places already, so things like that should be obvious by now." Lloyd glares at his friend in an infuriated matter, leading to Zelos then commenting before they get too off-track "Well then, let's get going and look for that control room."

Upon going through the entrance to the ranch, the group finds themselves in the presence of a strange arrangement of blocks in front of a large door. "Hmm, seems we need to activate all these blocks to open the door." Lloyd comments. Riku stretches his arms in front of his body and steps forward while commenting "Good idea, let me handle this one."

The teenage Overlord coats his hands in electricity and kneels down, placing them both directly on the first block and sending electricity through every single block. But the blocks don't activate at all, causing Riku to pause for a moment as he steps up and says "What? My electricity doesn't work?"

"Rodyle must have planned for that…That's a little worrisome. But don't worry, I think I know the solution to this puzzle." After Raine comments on this matter, she walks onto the first block in front of her, causing a little light to appear atop of it. She walks along the path to the left and goes around the entire arrangement until they are all aglow, which causes the large door to open up and allow the group passage to the next room.

Meeting Raine on the other side, Lloyd compliments her for figuring it out, and they move on to the next room. Inside, Lloyd finds another Sorcerer's Ring Altar, which allows him to change it's function. Upon doing so, he creates a loud "Ping!" that radiates around the room and creates a little shockwave. "What a bizarre sound…" Lloyd comments after the ringing exits his ears.

Raine glances around and notices that one of the doors in this multi-pathed room has opened after the sound went off. "So the machines in this facility resonate with that sound…Looks like this will be our key to reach Rodyle." "Rodyle's definitely an idiot for keeping something like this here. If he removed this, we'd be stuck in the entrance and never be able to stop his plans." Riku notes.

"To be fair, he expected us to perish at the hands of the dragons. He likely doesn't know we are alive." Regal says in a wise tone. Presea pulls out her axe and holds it along her hands, commenting in a rather bitter tone "Good…"

Moving on through the newly opened door, the group crosses a bridged hanging over a deep chasm, where they find themselves in front of a column with an elevator and a large series of jail cells filled with humans that were taken from Palmacosta. The elevator goes really high up, possibly to the very top of the ranch itself, but it doesn't seem to be active.

"Can the ring work on this?" Lloyd asks himself as he touches the ring and activates the sound wave to try and turn the elevator on, but fails to accomplish his task. "Hmmm, guess only the Desians know how to work this elevator." Raine comments immediately afterwards.

"So what are we going to do then?" Zelos asks in a curious tone. "We have only one choice…Let's free the captives here and cause a disturbance. Once the Desians come down, we'll kill them and use the elevator." Raine replies in a morbid sounding tone.

"…That's rather cruel, but they don't really leave us with any other options." Sheena points out. "Indeed…Lloyd, go around and use the ring to open the cells. Colette, Riku, help bring the captives down to the ground. Lloyd, once you're done you and Zelos should wait outside the elevator to stop the Desians."

Understanding the plan, Lloyd runs around the base of the column and uses the Sorcerer's Ring to activate the jail cells, opening them up instantly to free all the tattered clothed humans inside. Colette and Riku quickly work to help the captives on the higher floors get to the ground. Once they've freed everyone, the teenage Overlord urges the ones he saved "Go! Get out of here quickly!"

Once all the humans were out of sight, Lloyd and Zelos pulled out their swords and waited at the elevator door. It opens about a minute later, and the two Desians that emerge are immediately shanked through the hearts by Lloyd and Zelos' blades. Blood shoots through their chests as the swords are pulled out, and their bodies fall to the ground and bleed out as Lloyd and Zelos sheathe their weapons. The only one who really has pity for the fallen Desians is Colette, everyone else gives a neutral glance to them as they walk into the elevator and activate it to head up the highest possibly floor in the ranch.

No one drops a comment on what they just did, and this silence remains until the elevator stops and releases the group in front of a slightly elevator platform that released a cone of white light. It was the only thing of note in this room, leading to Riku commenting "This has to be a teleportation panel…Which means a maze."

"A maze, seriously? What is the point of this?" Zelos comments in a rather annoyed tone, leading to Raine stating "Does it matter? We will only waste a little time with this, and then deal with Rodyle at the top."

The group walks into the teleportation device, ending up in another part of the ranch above them, and after a good seven minutes of wandering between devices they end up in front of a door with a bigger shape and grander design than all the rest atop a small staircase. It was clear where this would lead to, but before they went through it Lloyd turned towards the group and held his arms out while commenting "Is everyone ready? Now we have Rodyle right where we want him!"

"He will pay for what he has done." Presea firmly comments. "Indeed, for everything Rodyle has done, even hell is too good for him. Let us show him no mercy." Regal says in a surprisingly fierce tone of voice.

"Once he's done for, Sylvarant and Tethe'alla will be in a better shape. You have my support, Lloyd ol' boy!" Zelos cheerfully comments. There was nothing else from the remainder of the group that needed to be said, so with a nod of his head Lloyd turned towards the door and pointed towards it, and with a brave charge everyone runs for it as it opens, ready to deal with Rodyle and his accursed Mana Cannon…

_Next Time: Nothing is Set in Stone…_


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: "I Will Not Stand Back Anymore!"**

Entering through the door at the top of the Human Ranch, the group finds themselves in an enclosed room that had brighter lighting than the rest of the building, but with the relatively same technology. Lloyd immediately looks to the right and finds Rodyle standing in front of a large glass pane with a glowing green seal placed in front of it on a device. "Rodyle!" Lloyd proclaims the Desian's name, and as everyone turns to face him he too flips around and glances down at the group with a smirk on his face and his red glasses gleaming slightly.

"Well well, I see the failed Chosen and her traveling band of fools are still alive. You're as stubborn as cockroaches." Rodyle states in a peeved tone of voice. Presea pulls out her axe and swings it at the ground while scowling at the half-elf and stating "You and Vharley…deceived me!" Her anger was welling up with each word she spoke.

"Presea, poor poor Presea…I'd have treated you so much better had you made me a Cruxis Crystal in that little body of yours. But I guess you inferior beings are incapable of such a feat." Rodyle's callous disregard to Presea's suffering makes the girl snap, and after swinging her axe into the grasp of both hands she rushes right up the staircase and leaps into the air towards the half-elf with her axe held up high.

"RAAAAAAAH! DIE!" Presea exclaims with all of her might as she brings her axe down towards Rodyle. The man smiles, and disappears with an illusion just like he did the last time she tried to kill him. But this time Rodyle adds onto the illusion, and as Presea slams her axe against the ground a purple glyphic seal activates and sends electricity surging through the girl's body.

Rodyle appears off to the side of Presea, this time as his real self, to better enjoy the pain the girl was enduring. Once the electricity drops, Presea's screams end and her body is left smoking slightly as she is left on her knees with a defiant and angered glare pointed at Rodyle. "Ahahahaha!" Rodyle laughs maniacally at Presea's foolishness, but in his distraction he's struck with a few fireballs to the side of his body.

"Ergh!" He groans out in a slight tone of pain, glancing to the right afterwards to see an angered Genis holding his kendama up towards Rodyle. The Desian grins and comments "Now now, settle down, children."

"How dare you-" Regal scowls at Rodyle and looks ready to leap at him for an attack, but the half-elf raises one hand up while placing another on the seal behind him, saying to the group before they advanced "Hahah, I wouldn't do that if I were you. Now then, have a look at the projector. I've got a special underwater show for you."

With a push of a button on the seal, Rodyle summons forth a very clear holographic image of the lower quadrant of his ranch, where the human captives Lloyd and the others freed can be seen slowly walking closer to the exit of this accursed place. But in a matter of seconds, Rodyle presses another button on the seal to cause something to activate another device. Water begins to rapidly fill the room the prisoners were walking through, and it would only be a matter of time before they were drowned.

"N-No! How could you do that?!" Genis proclaims in sheer disbelief at what he was watching. "They'll all be killed!" Colette reacts in horror to what she was witnessing. This flooding infuriated Lloyd, who quickly ran to the top of the stairs and drew both of his swords out, glaring at Rodyle and proclaiming to him "You bastard! Stop the water, now!"

The rest of the group sans Riku rush up to join Lloyd, but the man isn't intimidated in the slightest even as Lloyd runs at him and takes a slash at his body. Rodyle leaps back out of the way and grins, commenting in a joyous tone "It's too late! I know why you've come here…It's obvious you intend to shut down my Mana Cannon. But you won't succeed. I've filled the corridor leading to the Mana Cannon with sea water!"

But as he brags to the group about this matter, the gushing of water coming through the shaft of the ranch stops, causing the half-elf to wonder what silenced it as he turns to the right and proclaims "What? What's going on here? I didn't order the water to stop!"

Standing at the side of the projector is Riku, who holds both of his hands up and uses his powers to halt the water mere inches before it began to consume the captives. The humans made the final stretch through the ranch, escaping out the front door by the time the teenage Overlord lets go of the water and leans forward slightly, his arms limping down as he sweats out of all parts of his skin and pants heavily.

The water in the ranch begins to rise again, but Rodyle's plan to kill the humans in the process had failed. Riku glares up at him and between his breaths he comments "Sorry…Rodyle…I…I won't let you…Ever win…"

"Hmmm…Heheheh, Hahaha!" Rodyle joyously laughs at the teenage Overlord's comment, his arms swinging outward as he confuses the group with his actions. He says to Riku in turn "Foolish Overlord, do you think I care if some inferior beings escape my ranch? After all the effort you wasted to manipulate mana-filled water, I have managed to eliminate the only threat in this room!"

"W-What?" Riku could barely understand what Rodyle was getting at until the half-elf explained briefly "You efforts to destroy my cameras were wasted, I learned enough from your battle to realize that so long as the elements you manipulate are tainted by mana, you will struggle to bend them to your whims!"

"But enough of that failure of an Overlord! Even with your interference, the Mana Cannon will be completed once I get the Cruxis Crystal. With Thor's Hammer in my possession, Yggdrasill and Cruxis will BEG for my mercy! Even that eye-sore of a tower will fall before my cannon." Rodyle's words reek of the highest arrogance, which irritates and confuses Lloyd as he swings one of his swords out and asks "What do you hope to accomplish by destroying the Tower of Salvation?!"

"Heheheheheh…What does it matter? You lower life forms have been nothing more than my pawns in this little war against that fool Yggdrasill. With everything I've witnessed, everything I've experimented on, I have finally earned the Cruxis Crystal I so rightfully deserved!" Rodyle reaches into his suit and pulls out a red crystal wrapped in a gold border. But something about the gem's color was odd compared to what is expected of it.

"Now then, I think I'll test it's power first be equipping it onto myself…" Rodyle takes the Cruxis Crystal and places it onto the front of his chest. The gems stitches itself through his clothes and into his skin, causing him to flinch in pain for a moment as he stretches his arms out and proclaims to the group "Behold, inferior beings, the birth of this world's new god!"

In a matter of seconds, Rodyle's skins bulges out in multiple directions before he is consumed by a flash of light. When the light fades away, standing where Rodyle was is a grotesque creature with green fleshy skin that had no lips or gums, leaving his rotting, salivating teeth in full view. Most of his body was covered in a type of dull, silver armor that appeared to have some similarities to his suit. The top of his head was covered in a dome of that same material, with his glasses having been converted to almost mechanical, reddish eyes.

Lloyd and the rest of the group looked disgusted at the beast's overall appearance, but Rodyle fully denied the monstrous form he had taken and proclaimed in a ghastly roar "Now, 'Chosen of Regeneration', it is time I put an end to you and your friends' little journey!"

"Professor! Take Presea and heal her and Riku! We'll handle Rody-" As Lloyd gives out an order to Raine, Rodyle runs at him and swings his bladed arm forward, forcing him to swing his head back in front of him and raise his swords in a cross to block the attack in the center of his blades, which pushes his body backward a couple feet.

Rodyle raises his right arm into the air and morphs the hole in the flesh outward, creating a widened gap as he laughs joyously and prepares to fire out an electric blast between Lloyd's swords. However, Regal leaps over Lloyd's body and kicks Rodyle's square in the chin with all of the might he can throw into his right foot. Rodyle feels a crack in his chin as his head is shunted backward along with his right arm swinging out and launching off the electricity into the ground below.

Regal wasn't finished with his assault though, for while he was in mid-air he spun around and performed two more kicks, the third and final one applying the same amount of force as the first to send Rodyle flying straight into the wall. Regal manages to land on his feet, kneeling down and holding his cuffed hands in front of his chest as Lloyd swings his swords out and comments "Thank Regal."

"Don't hold back Lloyd, let's make him pay with everything we've got!" Regal held a great deal of investment in this battle as evidenced by his choice of words. Lloyd nods his head in agreement, but both fighters end their discussion when they hear Rodyle pulling his relatively unharmed body away from the wall. He lands on the ground and laughs at the lack of pain flowing through him, leading to him commenting "Hahaha! I knew it, I knew this power would be glorious! I am invincible!"

"Blah blah blah, sheesh, could you be anymore cliché'd?" Zelos comments in a nonchalant manner as he waves his shielded arm around and finished casting a spell. The white glyphic seal below his feet vanishes, and Rodyle is surrounded by multiple blades of wind that grind into his armor and skin as it consumes him. But like a tank Rodyle runs through the wind blades and swings his blade arm at Regal and Lloyd, hitting them and sending them flying into the glass pane to the left as they guard against the attack.

Running straight for Zelos, Rodyle proclaims "Do not think I have forgotten you, Chosen of Tethe'alla!" Zelos turns around and whistles for a moment, and before Rodyle chops his head off he is consumed by a large series of explosions created by a series of seals Sheena placed down beforehand. Sheena lands on the ground behind Zelos' back and glances up at the plume of smoke while reaching into her clothes to pull out a seal for a Summon Spirit.

"Glad you had my back honey buns!" Zelos compliments in his suave tone of voice. "Now is not the time for this Zelos!" Sheena states in an infuriated tone as she tries to focus on summoning forth some help.

"You're right…now is the time to die!" Rodyle's voice breaks through the smoke as he thrusts his fleshy arm out and releases a large stream of electricity that strikes Sheena's body before she can bring forth a Summon Spirit, leading to her being sent flying back along with Zelos. They both land on the ground and let out a brief groan of pain.

After Rodyle lets off some steam from that attack, Lloyd leaps directly onto his back and raises both of his swords into the air before attempting to pierce them through the monster's flesh. But Rodyle spins around, throwing Lloyd right off and forcing him to get his bearings fast before he can land on his feet. "Colette, Genis, now!" Lloyd proclaims the very moment he lands.

"What?!" Rodyle blurts out in confusion before he glances over his right shoulder and sees both Colette and Genis preparing spells. Colette was blessed by holy light around her entire body as glowing pink feathers floated up from the edge of the circle. Meanwhile, Genis had a gigantic purple glyphic seal below his feet as he surprisingly put away his kendama and held his hands into the air above him. "O' holy one, cast thy purifying light upon this corrupt soul…" Colette says in a calm, melodious tone. "From the land of the living, I call upon thee in the land of the dead to unleash thy fury of thunder!"

The sky rips open twice over above Rodyle, and with Regal leaping out of the way and Lloyd helping Sheena and Zelos get out of range Colette proclaims "Judgment!" while Genis simultaneously exclaims "Indignation!" Rodyle looks up in sheer disbelief as two cascades of burning light come gushing through the tear in differing forms. First, Rodyle is struck down by a wide bombardment of holy lasers, whose vicious impacts silence all in the room. Then, the crashing sound of thunder breaks apart this silence as a gargantuan lightning bolt consumes the entirety of Rodyle's body.

The room is filled with light as everything trembles below the group's feet, and by the end of it all both Genis and Colette were smiling at how well their combination attack was pulled off even if it did drain a lot of their mana. They turned to each other and gave a quick high-five, but their victorious gestures were ruined by the words that echoed through the veil of smoke formed from both attacks. "Did you truly think that such blessed spells would work on one who has ascended to the level of a god?!"

Rodyle's arrogant cry focuses everyone's attention on the smoke with looks of utter shock on their faces as it parts, revealing that while the monstrous half-elf's armor has been torn apart slightly, he was otherwise barely harmed by the combined power of Judgment and Indignation. In fact, now his entire body was surging heavily with electricity, to which he pointed out with great joy "But thank you, my fellow traitorous half-elf, for supplying me with even MORE power! Now, die!"

Rodyle throws his right arm out and opens the hole up wide, taking all of this electricity gathered around him to fire it all out at once at both Colette and Genis in the form of a heavy beam. Lloyd immediately sprints away from Zelos and Sheena while exclaiming "Colette! Genis!" in a panicked rage. He leaps forward in front of Rodyle's beam and spins so his back is facing his friends, and with both of his swords raised up he swings down upon the electric beam.

The collision of blades with electricity sends energy surging outward in all directions, and Lloyd grunts with all of his might to keep the energy at bay even though it was hurting his body to do so. Colette and Genis ran out of the way as Lloyd's body as pushed back, with Colette declaring her friend's many out of concern for his well-being, only for Genis to reply "We need to attack Rodyle! Lloyd can handle this on his own!"

Genis pulls out his kendama and begins to cast a spell towards Rodyle's direction, while Colette stutters out "R-Right…" and holds her hands out to strum a holy tune as angelic light glows below her body. Lloyd continues to push against the electric beam in the meanwhile, with Regal and Sheena staying back for the moment since Rodyle's body is surrounding by electricity as the attack continues to exist.

Meanwhile, Raine is kneeled between Presea and Riku, using her healing artes on the girl to patch her up as quickly as possible. With axe still in her hand, Presea looks at the battle at curses herself for letting her rage blind her to Rodyle's obvious trap. "Just a little longer Presea, and then you can join the fight…" Raine calmly states as she holds her staff over Presea's body.

"…You can join the battle afterwards Raine, your healing magic won't work on me." Riku calmly points out. "What makes you think that?" Raine asks in a puzzled tone.

The teenage Overlord grins slightly and states "You heard Rodyle…I have a hard time dealing with mana-based elements. Your healing magic might hurt me more than it would heal me. Besides, so long as I pace my breathes, I can just recover by getting enough air into my body. You guys should be able to handle Rodyle…"

"…I see, just try and get out of the way if necessary…" Raine voices a bit of concern towards Riku's condition before she focuses all of her energy back onto Presea's recovery. Back at the battle, Lloyd continues to push his swords into the energy beam and both Zelos and Genis pelt Rodyle with fireballs while Colette uses Holy Song to supply her friends with a little more strength and defense.

But even with this boost in strength, Lloyd was only at even with the electricity, and Rodyle was just incapable of letting up. Sheena tries throwing seals at the monster, but they all fizzle out around his shield of electricity. When that fails, she pulls out a brown seal to summon forth Gnome. But once again Rodyle doesn't allow her to go through with her attack as he split apart the electricity from his shield and fired a blast at Sheena.

The girl leaps back and lands on the wall, flipping off of it as another blast comes towards her only for yet another one to strike her in the stomach and send her crashing back into the wall. But while he distracted himself with Sheena, Lloyd pushes forth against the electricity while letting out an angered roar, and with his Exsphere activating to create a black field around his body due to being pushed into Overlimit Lloyd pushes back the beam all the way. In the process, he manages to send out two heavy waves of energy at Rodyle as his swords crash down against the ground.

"What?! Impossible!" Rodyle exclaims in utter disbelief, and he then takes the full brunt of Lloyd's two attacks, which cleaves right across his armor and slices partially into his flesh. "GRAAAAAH! How…How dare you!" Rodyle screams in pain and mutters out in disbelief, and with a fiendish roar he throws out all remaining electricity in his body into a singular expanding field that stretches across most of the room and slams into all of his opponents.

In an instant, they are all thrown back a good number of feet, slamming them against the closest walls or floors and leaving them with quite a bit of damage on their bodies. Lloyd in particular is dropped to his knees and forced to plant one sword against the ground for support. "Damn it, how can he have this much power?!"

"Hahahaha! I am a holder of the Cruxis Crystal and a superior half-elf! I am beyond all who can oppose me in this current state. I control the Mana Cannon, and with both this and the Cruxis Crystal I will control the world! All inferior beings will be cleansed, starting with your pathetic group!" Rodyle boasts with all of his might, ignoring the fact that his body has taken a great deal of damage from the overall battle.

"SHUT UP!" These two words of defiance emerge from Presea, who pushes herself off the ground in spite of the fact that she had not been fully healed. Her expression was adorned with rage, and she swung her axe furiously down to the right of her while glaring up at Rodyle. With her teeth grit hard and her eyes watering with painful tears, she listened as Rodyle glanced at her and said "Presea…You are the biggest failure of them all! Even after almost twenty years your body could not form a Cruxis Crystal for me. Just like your sister, you are nothing more than a wast-"

"GRAAAAH!" Rodyle's words sent Presea into a fit of rage, which simultaneously activated her Exsphere and causes her to go into Overlimit. She leaps straight at Rodyle with her axe and swung behind her body, and the man fires off a heavy stream of lightning to try and push her away. But Presea dives straight into the lightning without swinging her axe out to defend herself, pressing right through it and bringing her axe out to attack Rodyle straight in the chest.

The half-elf takes the full brunt of the axe, leading to his body being slammed directly against the back of the room as a crack is formed into his armor. The seal machinery Rodyle used to flood the ranch is broken immediately, and Rodyle lets out a cry of pain as the sharp metal pierces into his flesh.

Presea lands on the ground after pulling her axe out of Rodyle's body, staring up at him and proclaiming "You've taken my time, you've taken my family, and you've taken my home. I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE MY FRIENDS TOO!"

Presea raises her axe above her head and sets the blade aglow with golden light, bringing it straight down upon the crack in Rodyle's armor in a furious arch that spreads the energy outward for a few seconds before it collapses back into the origin point and creates an explosion of flames that tears the chest of the armor asunder and sends scorching pain through Rodyle's entire being.

As the girl flips her axe back to the side of her body Rodyle desperately looks on at Presea and says to her "I-It's not impossible Presea! I-I can do it…As a god…I-I can return your time…bring back your family, restore Ozette! Spare me, and I can bring it all back to you!"

Presea doesn't listen to the words of this blind, callous man as she replies to him in a calm fury "…There is no way to turn back time." She then throws her axe as high up as the ceiling would allow her to, leaping up after it and catching it perfectly by the handle as she holds it behind her head and releases a flash of light from the blade.

"You'll never hurt anyone again…" Presea states as she flips her body around a couple of times and descends towards Rodyle's vulnerable chest. Slamming her axe into his body, the impact creates a heavy tremor through the entire build as energy is expended from the weapon in order to let loose a large eruption of searing light. Rodyle's entire body is consumed until Presea proclaims "Crimson Devastation!" At which point she pulls her axe from Rodyle's body and turns around as he's consumed by a bright red explosion of fire.

Presea places one hand against her chest and closes her eyelids while hanging her axe off to the side, letting out a quiet sigh of relief as she assumed that she had dealt with Rodyle for good. But when the explosion ends off, Rodyle was still alive, but his flesh has been heavily torn apart and his body was in an incredibly terribly shape overall. He falls forward, landing on his broken limbs as Presea turns around and leaps off of the platform before Rodyle can attack her.

Rodyle glances at his body, and notices that he was slowly peeling apart bit by bit. "D-Disintegration?" His voice had become heavily distorted and worried, and as he glanced at the Cruxis Crystal that was sticking out of his chest he commented "Pronyma…Pronyma you tricked me!"

Rodyle spits up a large chunk of liquid in front of his body and limps forward, falling right off the platform and crashing a few feet away from it as he tumbles forward. His body continues to disintegrate at a rapid pace, cursing Pronyma's name all the while. "Damn that woman…Damn her to hell! She could not accept my genius, none in this broken world could! I am Rodyle, the greatest of the Desian Grand Cardinals…no, the greatest of all beings in this world!"

Rodyle limps up on top of the glowing green device in the center of the room, using his barely mobile limbs to tap a few buttons on it as everyone glances at him in curiosity. "Hahahaha…The Angelus Project wasn't a complete waste…I will die knowing that I above all others in the world was able to make something capable of besting even Yggdrasill…But it doesn't matter, for none of you will live through this day. I am taking you all with me!"

As the last of his body crumbles away, Rodyle manages to activate a blaring siren in the ranch that fills the room with a red light for a few seconds. Raine recognizes this noise and goes into an immediate state of panic as she points out "No! He's activated the self-destruct system!"

Riku gets on his feet after a prolonged period of healing up, commenting to Raine quickly "Hurry! Give everyone enough strength to stand!" The teenage Overlord then runs over to the machine and places his hands on the device with a plan in mind to deactivated the self-destruct, only for Raine to point out as she runs to heal Colette and Genis first "You can't do that, this whole place is built around magitechnology! You'll kill yourself before deactivating such a machine!"

Riku immediately pulls his hands away, slamming one fist on top of the device while proclaiming "Damn it! Then what can we do to stop it?!" Presea puts her axe away and points out to the teenage Overlord "It's impossible. The only one among us who can handle this machinery is Raine."

Zelos pushes himself onto his knees and says with a slight smirk "Heh, most Tethe'allans don't study the details of magitechnology very much. Kind of biting us in the ass now…" Riku glances at Raine and exclaims her name, but the half-elf panics as she finishes healing Sheena and Zelos and proclaims "I-I know! But I can't do this by myself!"

While she rushes to heal Regal and Lloyd, the door below the platform she's on opens up wide, and Botta and his two Renegade partners run straight into the room. Botta also recognized the self-destruct sequence, and wastes little time in stating to the group "We'll take over from here. The rest of you go and escape through the hatch over there!" He gestures behind him at the end of his sentence.

Lloyd smiles at Botta and says in joy "Hey, you're alive!" As Raine finishes healing Lloyd, Botta proclaims to the group "Save the chit-chat for later! Leave now. You'll only get in our way!" His words were tough but necessary for the desperate situation they were in, and Lloyd nods his head as he gets on his feet and says in an understanding tone "…Okay."

The group rushes for the door Botta entered through, taking a ladder in it to climb up into an enclosed room behind the glass window. When everyone arrives, the hatch shuts tight behind them. Lloyd immediately turns around and sees Botta and the two Renegades gathered around the device Rodyle, putting all of their effort into assumedly stopping the self-destruct. They went to work for a good couple of minutes before the water from the ranch began to flow into the room.

"No! We have to open this door!" Lloyd panics and desperately bends down at the hatch, pulling up on it as Genis and Zelos go beside him and try to help when his efforts fail. Even together they couldn't make the hatch budge an inch, leading to Regal running forward and proclaiming "Move!" The three gathered around the hatch move out of the way as Regal leaps at the glass window and uses all of his strength to kick right into it. But for all of his strength, he can't even manage a crack into the surface.

Regal grits his teeth and takes a couple steps back as Raine comments "Botta did this on purpose. They knew the water was coming and locked it from the inside. If the door opens, this area will be flooded as well. And as you can see, the ceiling is covered by a dome. There's nowhere for the water to escape."

Riku's heart suddenly feels heavy as he hears all this occurring before him. He knew this moment was coming, but unlike all other times where terrible events unfolding in this world he felt something nagging at him from within. "W-What is this sensation…" He comments quietly to himself as he places one hand against his chest while everyone speaks of what was happening.

"Damn it, isn't there anything we can do?!" Lloyd's words echo within Riku's head, causing him to blankly stare forward and comment "Anything…We can do?" While he stated this, Botta and his two partners climbed up to the platform in front of the glass window, where he comments in a triumphant tone "We've stopped the self-destruct system." The water was slowly rising behind him.

Lloyd slams his fists against the window and begs of Botta "Damn it! Open the door now! If we destroy the dome above us, then…" Botta replies in a calm tone of voice "Our goal was always to modify each ranch's mana reactor in order to fire mana at the Great Seed. Now that we've finished reprogramming this control room, our mission is complete. We need you to get the message to Yuan that we have succeeded."

"Tell him…yourself?" Riku found a bit of an echo in those words as he was reminded of what he said to Kratos twice before. His words preceded the moment where Lloyd himself said "Tell him yourself! Open the door, now!" The boy continues to bang against the window to break the glass, which actually brings a bit of a smile to Botta's face.

Even as the water was almost halfway to his feet, he calmly said to the group "We pray for your success in regenerating the world. Please see to it that Martel is finally allowed her eternal sleep, for Yuan's sake as well." As he says this, a steel plate begins to fall down from the top of the window, providing the final means of defense for the group from the rising water.

But as the steel fell, Riku glanced blankly at the ground as time seemed to slow down before him. His heart palpitated against his chest as a cold sweat trickled down the side of his head. He retreated inside of his own thoughts, where he found himself curdled up in the middle of a black void. _"What is wrong with me…Why do I keep standing around and letting things unfold that I could so easily prevent?" _His words echo throughout the confines of his mind.

As he asks this question, a mental manifestation of the Demon King, Demise, appears before him in a gigantic, blackened form. _"It's because you are afraid of repeating my existence…Why risk saving one person or changing another event if it means losing everything else in the process?!"_

Demise eerily morphs into the shape of Dark Samus, who points it's gun at Riku and says to him _"You greatly fear the unknown, because such a thing always deviates from the knowledge you have buried within you. You always feel safe so long as things go as you know they will, hence why you focused all of your efforts into saving my nemesis instead of your own life…"_

Dark Samus then morphs into the grotesque Gigas Galactic, who uncurls Riku with his thorny tendrils and lifts him up before his gruesome eye, which leads to him stating in a combined echo of his two halves _"Creatures that aren't familiar to you such as myself don't scare you, because deep down you want a challenge, something that tests the very limits of your power and knowledge without deviating too far from the courses you are familiar with…"_

Next up, Gigas Galactic transforms into Perfect Nazo, who grabs Riku by the neck and hoists him up into the air, and with a scowl on his face the powered hedgehog states _"And you know why this is? Because like me you seek power, you CRAVE power. Not to protect people, but to gain the ability to destroy anything that stands in your path! You just delude yourself into thinking that you want to save these worlds to blind yourself from the true evil buried inside of you…" _

One final transformation unfolds, turning Nazo into Riku himself, but this mental projection bears a psychotic grin and an overall aggressive demeanor. He keeps holding onto the real Riku's neck for a few seconds before stating to him _"I am what you truly wish to become! All this power inside of us, the ability to control every element and travel the vastness of space, you want to take this very power and use it to rule over everyone like a God! But you know what holds you back…"_

"_It's that damned 'brother' of yours who instilled a sense of morality inside of you before it was too late for me to take over! Had he been even a few seconds later, I would've been the dominant personality…All that power inside of a blank slate, it was only right that I would be born from it. But even after you were pushed in as the dominant personality I still existed."_

"_Heh, I suppose I can partially thank the fragment of 'D' that slipped into your body for that, but at the same time that couldn't have been enough…Deep down, you want me to take over. Don't worry, it would be for the better. This broken world, no, this broken universe needs a hero to save it, and I am the one who can get the job done." _

"…You done with your little pep talk?" Riku asks in an oddly calm tone of voice. _"What?" _The aggressive fragment says in confusion as he lets go of the boy and lets him step back. Standing upright with a cold glare, the teenage Overlord says to his aggressive self "You're right, if you exist within me that means there is a chance that I could decide to become you one day. Which is why I'm glad you reminded me of that possibility so I can continue to avoid your existence for yet another period of time."

"…" The aggressive Riku was left in silence at the response. "All of you were right, I have been afraid of changing the world again, I've always wanted to put the lives of the heroes before my own, the prospect of fighting something unknown both frightens and excites me, and I definitely do crave power. But this whole discussion has made me realize something…"

"I can change the world. What I shouldn't do is drastically change events that would ruin how everything would proceed. Doing something minor like saving Botta and the people trapped in Rodyle's ranch is a helpful act that won't end the world. Meanwhile, if I were to do something like kill Kratos, then everyone on this world would be doomed due to how much he affects the future."

"_You'd go out of your way to save three people? Heh, have you forgotten what Rodyle said? As you are now, you'll die. You can't do this, it's impossible." _The aggressive side of Riku gleefully points out. "Impossible? No, don't you see? While you've listed off why I've hesitated to help, you have also shown me that I have the tools necessary to save them. I have power and knowledge, all I was lacking was the courage to push myself to take that necessary step."

"_Power…knowledge…courage? No…It can't be…" _The aggressive side of Riku realizes something important from these words, and the real Riku holds his right hand out and says in turn "Yep. Once again that world has defined my development. It showed me suffering, but now it's given me the values needed to save myself…And anyone else!"

"_You're insane. You can't save everyone! No one can, it's a proven impossibility!" _"No, nothing is impossible until every option is exhausted. And I'm the Elemental Overlord, so I have thousands of options at my disposal! Even if it takes me a long time to learn the necessary means, I will turn impossibility into possibility! And with my knowledge, I will carefully watch and ensure that I don't drastically change the world while continuing to try and save those who never had a chance to stay alive otherwise!"

"_You'll just become me if you delve that deeply into your powers!" _Riku shakes his head at the face of his aggressive side's final defiance, saying to him in turn "I'll keep being myself, so long as I keep to my morals and selflessly help those who need me! I will not stand back anymore!"

With this final moment, Riku snaps out of his thoughts and time resumes around him, but now he's adorned with a confident smile and a more relaxed demeanor. He looks at Sheena and says to him "Sheena! Summon Undine and Gnome and tell them to lend me some of there power, now!"

The summoner, who was saddened by Botta's sacrifice, looks at Riku in a confused manner and states "W-What?" Riku confidently pumps his fist and says "Believe in me Sheena, I know what I'm doing here!"

The ninja reaches into her clothes and draws out the brown and blue seals, leading to her swinging them out in front of her body as most of the group looks at Riku in utter confusion. "Riku, what are you up to?!" Lloyd proclaims in disbelief, while Sheena states "Gnome, Undine, I summon thee! Come forth and give unto Riku a portion of your powers!"

In a matter of seconds, Gnome and Undine are called forth, and they immediately turn their bodies towards Riku and point their shovel and scepter at him respectively. They send their energy flowing out towards his body, and he calmly accepts them as his body is set aglow with a combination of brown and blue light. He nods his head at the Summon Spirits and says in an appreciative tone "Thank you, I promise to repay you for this someday."

The Summon Spirits then vanish after nodding in response, and with Sheena left with confusion on her face as she puts the seals away Riku holds his glowing right hand out and warns the group urgently "Stand back everyone, or you'll get crushed!" Immediately taking his almost insane sounding warning to heed, the group leaps away as Riku pulls back on his right arm and latches onto the metal window with his powers.

With a mighty tug, the teenage Overlord pulls the metal window right off, throwing it until the wall behind him, which crashes with a resounding echo. Behind the metal, Botta is buried up to his chin in water, and he widens his eyes in shock as he sees what has happened. But before he can say anything, Riku thrusts his glowing left hand out, taking all the water that threatened to drown Botta and his two allies and pushing it away from them.

The water is thrown into the back of the wall, creating a spectacle of lashing waves inside of the room as Botta is freed from a fate of drowning for the moment. Lloyd and the group looks inside the room with sheer awe on their faces, with Lloyd commenting in particular "Riku…You…You're…" He was at a loss for words.

The teenage Overlord smiles and takes his hands back, running forward and leaping straight at the top of the glass window, breaking into flight long enough to force most of his strength into a singular charge, which allows him to crash right through the glass window and shatter it into multiple pieces. He breaks his flight and starts to land towards the center of the room, drawing all of the glass towards him to create a platform that he can land on while simultaneously keeping the water at bay around the sides of the room, though he had to compensate for the continuous increase in the water level.

Once he lands, Riku crosses his arms in front of his body as Botta turns and says to him "Elemental Overlord, what do you think you are doing?!" The teenage Overlord exclaims to Botta in response "You heard Lloyd! It wouldn't be right if you didn't tell Yuan that we succeeded! Botta, do you want to live?!"

"…I-I do." After a moment of hesitation, Botta replies with that simple answer. Riku smiles brightly as he tenses his muscles and says "Then damn it, join Lloyd and the others in that room, because I'm granting you a second chance at life!"

The teenage Overlord then looks at the water cascading around him, and with the power of Earth and Water at his disposal Riku states "I, who command the almighty tides and the unbending earth, demand your obedience. Now, YIELD!"

Riku swings both of his arms outward and pulls them down on both sides of his body, tightly clenches his fists and slams the water back down with all of his might. When he does this, he simultaneously focuses his Earth power on the ground, cracking four separate holes in the corners to give an easy way to push the water back down.

He then overworks both abilities on the entire ranch and the water filling it up. His mind is strained as he slowly but surely pushes the water back to it's original location, draining the room bit by bit to ensure the safety of his friends and allies. As he pushes himself to his limits, he pulls his head back and falls to his knees, exclaiming at the top of his lungs as the water level goes lower and lower and the entire building alternates between trembling and remaining motionless.

Botta, who had climbed up to join the rest of the group, looks on at this spectacle with sheer disbelief as she stated "Unbelievable…To think that I would bear witness to such a miracle."

"Professor, what's going on? What is Riku doing?" Lloyd asks in the midst of this amazing event. Raine was hesitant to reply at first since she had only a slight clue as to what was unfolding before her eyes, but upon piercing everything together she says to Lloyd "I can't believe he thought this plan out…"

"First Riku had Sheena summon Undine and Gnome, and since their powers are pure and untainted by mana he could safely reduce the strain from manipulating the elements by having them share some of their powers with them. Then, he's using his control of the Water element to force the water back into the sea surrounding the ranch while simultaneously using the Earth element to mend the strain placed on the tower and seal off the pipes sending water up the vertical shaft."

Raine's explanation is met with natural confusion from everyone around, but Lloyd doesn't need to understand everything to realize that what was happening was a miracle beyond words. "That's incredible…Come on Riku, you can do it!" He gives his cheers to the teenage Overlord, who was nearing the end of his grueling task in the center of the room.

Blood begins to leak from the right of Riku's nose, but he keeps pushing on as only a few feet of water remain in the world. As the finale of his efforts approaches, Riku finishes shutting the pipes that was letting water inside, and at that moment he releases the grip on his hands and limps them out beside his body as the glow earned by Undine and Gnome's infusion of power vanishes.

All that remained of the water was a few drops that trickled off of the ceiling, and as they pattered on the ground they were heard as echoes in Riku's ears. He puts a smile on his face as he starts to fall forward, thinking to himself now that he successfully saved Botta and his two friend's lives _"Hehe…You did it Riku…You changed the future for the better…" _

The teenage Overlord collapses on top of the self-destruct device, lying out as the glass shards scatter around the device. In this calm, he can only hear one person rapidly running towards him but he falls unconscious before he can turn and see just who was coming to pick him up…

_Next Time: Yuan and Botta_


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19: A Matter of Trust**

"…Rrggh…" A light groan is followed by Riku slowly lifting his head up while simultaneously opening his eyelids. His bones creaked in pain, and he could barely feel his muscles save for a little soreness in his arms. The first thing he notices is the glare of the sun above, which is something he didn't quite expect considering where he fell unconscious at.

"Outdoors…again?" Riku comments in a drowsy tone, his breath feeling rather arid as he leads into a cough from his dried throat. "God, I feel terrible…How long was I out for?" The teenage Overlord appears to not recall everything that he had done before, so while he tried to remember everything he takes one hand close to his mouth and appears ready to summon water into it from the palm.

He releases very little water, but he at least understood that it was because he was so weak that he couldn't get much out. Once he had satisfied his dried throat, Riku takes a look around to see where he was at. He glances to the left and sees the entrance to Palmacosta a few feet away along with a couple Rheairds nearby. It doesn't take long to realize that he was sitting on a Rheaird himself, and his body was placed in such a way that he wouldn't fall off if he were to suddenly wake up.

"Palmacosta…When did we get here? Last I remember, we met with the Renegades and were ready to go to Rodyle's ranch…" Riku lays one hand on the side of his head, which was wracking with pain as it tried to remember anything else. "…Where is everyone?" Is the next question the teenage Overlord placed on his mind.

Riku decides to sit on the Rheaird and slowly breath in and out to recover at a decent pace until he sees the others slowly walking back through the town. At that point the teenage Overlord leaps off of the Rheaird and goes to greet them. Lloyd speaks first, saying in a surprised tone "Hey, you're back to normal already!"

"I'm a little shaken still, but I can at least move again." Riku comments in a happy tone as he scans over the group. The first thing that sticks out is that Mithos is standing with everyone, but then the teenage Overlord looks up and something else comes to his attention. Botta was standing behind everyone with a look of reverence on his face directed at Riku.

"B-Botta?" Riku murmurs out the man's name, and as memories of before start to resurface he grips the side of his head again and remembers the events that unfolded at Rodyle's ranch, from the destruction of the Desian at Presea's hands to conquering his own doubts and doing the right thing by saving Botta and his two allies from drowning.

"That wasn't a dream then…I actually did it, didn't I?" Riku comments after letting out a slight laugh. Zelos nods his head with a smile and comments "You sure did! That was freaking amazing!"

"I can't believe you managed to pull it off, that was rather foolish, but at the same time very brave…" Raine says with a smile towards the teenage Overlord. "Alright guys, let's not bother Riku about this too much." Genis points out, being aware of how overwhelmed he might feel after just getting up.

"Heh, thanks Genis…" Riku says with a humble smile, leading to him looking at Lloyd with a serious expression and asking "So umm…What happened after I fell unconscious?"

"Well, the Professor picked up your body and brought you back to us, and afterwards we had to fend off a lot of dragons that emerged due to Rodyle's self-destruct attempt. Genis got this idea to play the flute Mithos gave him, which caused the Summon Spirit Aska to break through the glass dome, after which Mithos saved us with the Rheairds he borrowed from the Renegades." Lloyd has to take a momentary breath after explaining all that in rapid succession.

Raine goes on to state afterwards "We came back to Palmacosta to let Neil know that everything was ok, and he's going to send out a couple boats to the ranch to pick up all of the freed captives. Now we're planning to return to the Renegade Base and let Yuan know that everything went well."

"…That's right, I saved the people in the ranch too." Riku comments as he puts a light smile on his face, leading to Lloyd tilting his head and asking in a concerned voice "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Sorry Lloyd, I just…Kind of feel like a heavy weight has lifted off my shoulders. Anyways, lets go ahead and see Yuan." Riku decides to get everyone back on track with that second line, and everyone boards the Rheairds afterwards. Thankfully, there was enough there for Botta and the two Renegade soldiers to ride on.

As the group takes off, Riku is quick to fly beside Botta's Rheaird and ask of him "Are you feeling ok? I know you weren't underwater at all, but…" "If you're worried about my condition, then don't be. Minus a few minor wounds from fending off Desians, I'm otherwise alright." Botta politely replies.

Botta then turns towards the teenage Overlord and asks him "So, why did you save me?" Riku says in response "You want the cheesy response or an honest from the heart one?"

"Heh, I'm just more curious to know why you rescued someone who is by all means your enemy." Botta explains his question a little further, and with a nod of his head Riku answers "Well to be honest, I don't considering you an enemy. I wasn't around when you fought Lloyd and the others in the Sylvarant Base, and I was outside when you fought them in the Tethe'alla one. You never opposed our goals when I was around, so you never did anything to earn my ire."

"Is that so?" Botta says in a tone of surprise. "Not only that, considering the goals of the Renegades, you are more of an ally than you are our foe. We just didn't see things the same until this point. Of course, I guess there is the matter of you murdering the Chosens that came before Colette…" Riku ponders that final thought for a little bit as he leans back in the air and folds his arms behind his head.

"Heh, that's true. Everyone involved in this accursed affair has blood on their hands, but the time for amending those mistakes will be after we have dealt with Yggdrasill's plans." Botta replies. "I guess saving you gave you a slightly new outlook on life? Glad I could help then, Botta." Riku replies.

"As am I glad you and the others were there to help, Elemental O…No, Riku, I shall call you by your real name from here on out. I am forever in your debt." Botta's words are met with a humble chuckle from Riku, who proceeds to point out "It was Sheena's pacts with Undine and Gnome that saved you in the end, even if it was my power that quelled the water."

"Very true. I will extend my thanks to the summoner later, but my original words still stand." Botta then turns his head back towards the front of his Rheaird, while Riku glances at the half-elf and thinks to himself _"…You did it Riku, you made the right decision by saving Botta. Changing the timeline for the better is going to take some getting used to, so it might be best not to do anything like that for a little while…"_

After a few more minutes of flight, the group lands their Rheairds outside of the Sylvarant Renegade Base, which was in the middle of a vast desert just over the sea to the west of Palmacosta. Thankfully, the air wasn't that arid, though such a thing barely mattered since the moment the group entered the technologically advanced base they were met with a cool and relaxed atmosphere.

It was but a straight path through the base before the group arrived at Yuan's office, which was decorated with ancient memorabilia and bookshelves filled with old text books. Yuan sat back in a purple clothed chair with a book in his hands as the doors slid open, at which point he set the book down and commented in a somewhat surprised tone "You're back."

"Yep. We managed to finally defeat Rodyle and deal with his Mana Cannon." Lloyd replies as Yuan rises from his chair and folds his arms against his chest. The man looks over at Botta with more surprise on his face than one would expect him to have, and he commented not long afterwards "Botta…You're alive?"

"In the flesh, Lord Yuan." Botta replies in a docile and polite tone of voice. "Heh, so the mission went off without a single complication. Color me surprised…" Yuan smiles partially and holds his head down, but from the way he spoke it was as though he had a little difficulty comprehending what had went down.

"It's all thanks to Riku. Rodyle tried to flood the entire corridor leading to the Mana Cannon with sea water and then blow it up when we defeated him, and Botta chose to stay behind and deactivate the self-destruct device." Genis is the first to explain, but then Colette enthusiastically holds her fists up and states "But then Riku took a portion of Undine and Gnome's powers and was all 'Huah!' 'Urgh!' 'Argh!', and he managed to save Botta by pushing the water back!"

"…Is that true, Elemental Overlord?" Yuan calmly asks after hearing things out. Riku nods his head in response and says naught a word, to which Yuan replies "I see. Well then, I shall activate the dimensional transfer system. You may now travel between the two worlds at your leisure, thank you for your help."

"Before we go, I thought I'd bring it to your attention that our companion borrowed a Rheaird from you, so if you want to pick it up now would be the best time." Raine explains, leading to Yuan looking at her with a puzzled expression and commenting "Excuse me? Borrowed one of our Rheairds?" He spoke mostly to himself.

Shaking his head, Yuan further explains "Never mind, we'll take care of it soon. Before you go, ask the control room staff about procuring energy for the dimensional transfer system." The group then turns around sans Botta, but before they leave the room Yuan specifically asks "Elemental Overlord, could you stick behind for a bit? There are a few things I wish to discuss."

Riku glances at the group and comments "You mind waiting for me outside?" Lloyd nods his head and replies "Sure, we'll probably be in the control room for a few minutes." "Just don't take too long, I don't want to be sweating out in the desert heat." Zelos jokingly comments.

After the group leaves and the door shuts, Riku turns around and looks at Yuan while gesturing out with his right and asking "What do you want Yuan?" Yuan walks past his table and stands a few feet away from the teenage Overlord with Botta standing off to the right of him. Folding his arms against his chest, Yuan asks in a curious manner "Tell me, Elemental Overlord, what motivated you to save Botta?"

"Are you unappreciative of my efforts?" Riku asks, to which Yuan shakes his head and comments "Not at all. It just find it to be a rather bizarre action considering my allegiance."

"If I may interject for a moment, Lord Yuan, but from what I was told Riku never considered us to be an enemy because he was never around when we directly opposed the Chosen's group." Botta's explanation leads to Yuan glancing at him before commenting "Interesting, but don't you think you are being rather trusting considering what other side I am aligned with."

"You mean Cruxis? Why should I be concerned about that?" Riku calmly asks as he has a brief smile on his face. Yuan grins and comments after a momentary laugh "What proof do you have that I am fully on your side? For all you know, I've played you and the Chosen's group like chumps to get rid of Rodyle for me, and now that I've left you here alone I could capture you and take you to Lord Yggdrasill like I was originally assigned."

"If that was your plan, Yuan, then you wouldn't have brought this up to me. Besides, I don't have reason to suspect you of being truly loyal to Yggdrasill at this point." Riku's words were rather interesting to Yuan, who proceeded to ask after a momentary pause "Elemental Overlord, tell me, did you save Botta to earn my full loyalty towards the Chosen group's cause?"

Riku immediately shakes his head and says in a barely offended tone "Not at all Yuan. I did it because it's the right thing to do. But I guess helping out an ally of yours was just an added bonus. Besides, don't you think it's time you stop losing those close to you?"

The teenage Overlord immediately widens his eyes in surprise while Yuan does the same, only the Renegade Leader has his heart skip a beat and his cool is lost on his expression for a single moment. After a rather awkward pause that puzzled Botta, Yuan comments "Botta…Could you leave us for a bit?"

"Absolutely, Lord Yuan. I will go deal with the spare Rheairds." Botta politely departs from the room after glancing at Yuan and Riku for a moment. Once Yuan was certain that Botta was out of earshot, he lets out a slightly unhinged chuckle and comments "Heh, so my assumption was right all along. To think that being proven right would be more terrifying than the alternate…"

"…You always suspected it, huh?" Riku points out in a semi-apologetic tone of voice. Yuan lifts his head up slightly and glances at the teenage Overlord, saying to him in a firm tone "The first thing you did on this world was immediately go to where the Chosen and her friends were on the Fooji Mountains. I didn't think much of it at first until Kratos told me that you mentioned Lloyd to him during your battle, but what you have done here today has proven to me my original theory."

"…I can't believe I am about to ask this, but…Elemental Overlord, you know everything that is going to happen on this world before it occurs, don't you?" With Yuan asking such a precise question, Riku didn't feel like hesitating as he responded with a simple "Yes."

Yuan turns around and closes his eyelids, letting out a tired sigh before he shakes his head slowly as though he was about to get a headache thanks to this revelation. "The implications of this are astounding…" Yuan's distressed words made Riku feel terrible, since he was the one responsible for these conflicting emotions inside of the man.

"Yuan, I didn't mean to-" Before Riku can apologize for what he has done, Yuan glances over his left shoulder and asks "What are you exactly? A seer of the future? A visitor from the future?" Riku doesn't want to worsen the issue further, and after glancing down and to the side the teenage Overlord replies "I think it's better I don't answer."

"…No, you're right." Yuan calmly states as he turns around and glances at the boy, lowering his arms inside of his cloak as he proceeds to ask "So tell me, how much do you exactly know?"

"I think the most important thing I can say to you now is that I know exactly why you are doing all this for Martel. More specifically, I know your relation to her." Riku explains quietly, and after Yuan nods his head he turns around and walks towards his desk. He places his right hand on the side, revealing a single engraved ring on one of his fingers.

"…Martel was a kind woman, one who dedicated herself to peace between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla alongside her brother, Mithos. Her goal always remained selfless, even when the world refused to change despite all of her efforts. She was a half-elf, and will forever be my wife…Hence why it is imperative that I stop Yggdrasill's plan, and give her the rest she rightfully deserves." Yuan's explanation of his motives in better detail is given a bittersweet tone, and once he's done he turns around and faces the teenage Overlord.

"…I suspect you know the truth about Yggdrasill, that he is truly Mithos the Hero. I know that the original Elemental Overlord came to this world and spoke with Mithos, but I have never learned exactly what went down. Tell me, would you perhaps know what he wants from you?" Yuan proceeds to ask in a curious tone of voice.

"…Mithos wants me to use my powers to revive Martel. Not in a body of another, but actually physically revive her." Riku explains things without revealing that Mithos is a part of their group now, but he had a little hesitation as he goes through with this. "You could do that? You could actually revive Martel?" Yuan looks completely surprised by this bit of news as he asks the question.

"I could, yes, since she still has her body. But I'm wondering if that's really the right thing to do. I mean on one hand I'd be helping Mithos, who has ruined this world with his actions, but on the other hand, Martel is an innocent victim and your wife, and-" "You cannot revive her, no matter what happens." Yuan interrupts Riku with a surprising response, leading to the teenage Overlord blinking a couple times as he glances at him.

"I honestly didn't expect you to say that, Yuan." Riku comments, leading to Yuan stepping forward away from the desk and stating in a very firm tone of voice "It was really hard to…But as much as I would like to see her again, the world and the people she knew have changed so much, and not for the better. With Mithos' age of lifeless beings plan and Kratos becoming a shell of his former self, not to mention my own atrocities, I can only imagine the strain it would put on Martel's heart."

"Hmm, thanks for that answer. That honestly helps me with this whole dilemma. Now Yuan, can I ask something of you? Can I trust you to keep everything we've discussed from Botta and everyone else?" Riku puts all of his trust on the table here, and considering everything Yuan has done in his life that was a heavy risk to take.

"Yes, I definitely think that will be beneficial to both parties. There is something I feel I should mention though. Kratos is probably close to putting everything together, and if he were to let Mithos know-" "Kratos won't do it, trust me." Riku tries to reassure Yuan with those words, and the man nods his head and states "Very well, I will trust your word on this."

"However, I want you to tell me something. Is there anything I should be aware of in the immediate future?" Yuan tries to pry out an answer from the teenage Overlord, but Riku states quickly in response "Sorry, I can't do that. The most I can suggest is try and keep Botta out of the Renegade affairs for a while. Please trust me on this matter."

"I figured that would be your response. Then I guess there is nothing else for us to discuss for now." Yuan stated in an almost disappointed tone of voice. "Yeah, I should really get back with the others. It'll be a while before we cross paths again Yuan, so I hope you fare well until we meet again…Sorry you had to find out the truth about me." Riku replies as he turns around and begins to leave the room.

As he departs, he thinks to himself about how terrible it was to not tell Yuan about future events, especially regarding the fate of the Great Seed and Martel along with it. "Tsk…" Riku scoffs in anger, but takes a deep breath upon remembering that he vowed to stop worrying heavily about such affairs. "Just keep going forward Riku, everything will work out fine in the end as long as you stay on path…"

After Riku has left the Sylvarant Base, Botta goes back into Yuan's office, saying to him in somewhat worried tone "Lord Yuan, I have put the Rheairds away as you suggested, but I do believe there is something we need to discuss regarding them."

"Are you referring to the female half-elf's comment regarding a companion using them? Yes, that has perplexed me quite a bit. I didn't send for reinforcements, which means someone knew they were at the ranch…" As Yuan ponders this matter he sits back down on his chair and folds his hands in front of his face. "If I may, there's something I'd actually like to report now that the Chosen's group and Riku have left the premises." Botta says in a respectful tone of voice.

"Yes, Botta?" Yuan says as he glances towards his comrade. "When we were saved from the dragons in Rodyle's ranch, the one who brought the Rheairds was a blonde-haired half-elf. I consider it no mere coincidence that his name was Mithos." Upon Botta mentioning this, Yuan's face went pale with shock, and he widened his eyes as he glanced up at his comrade.

"What did you just say?" Yuan asks. "I believe it would be right to assume that Mithos has infiltrated the Chosen's group. Should we attempt to kill him while he's pretending to be a normal half-elf?" Botta tries to offer a solution to this predicament, but Yuan is left thinking about everything he had discussed with Riku just moments ago.

"_You knew of this as well, didn't you, Elemental Overlord? Hmmm, there has to be a reason you didn't tell me about Mithos…Could it be that…" _After Yuan thinks about this to himself, leading to him saying to Botta "Let us not try anything foolish. We'll bide our time for now, and strike when the moment is right. Besides, there is still one thing I require of him…"

Outside the Renegade Base, Riku joins back up with the rest of the group, who seemed to have been sitting at the Rheairds for a few minutes now. Zelos is waving his shield in front of his face like a fan, panting as he glances at the approaching teenage Overlord and says to him "You…You really need to have a better sense of time Riku…We've been out here for a while now."

"No we haven't Zelos, quit being a baby." Genis comments in a nonchalant tone of voice. Zelos glares at Genis and says to him "Quiet runt." He then looks back at Riku and says to him "Anyways, we're ready to go back to Tethe'alla. We're gonna drop Mithos off at Altessa's and then get back to work."

"Say, how are you gonna get back to Tethe'alla? You can't use the Rheaird's energy whatever to cross dimensions…" Lloyd asks in a curious tone of voice. Riku points towards the sky and comments nonchalantly "Oh, I'll just fly out into space and head right over to Tethe'alla. I know where Altessa's house is anyways."

"…Oh yeah, forgot you could do that. Is Tethe'alla and Sylvarant really that close together?" Lloyd asks. Riku nods his head and explains in a rather calm manner "Well yeah, the world would be screwed if both sides were separated by even an inch. Anyways, I'll see you on the other side!" The teenage Overlord quickly kicks off the ground and rockets off towards space, while Lloyd and the rest of the group glance up for a few seconds before they get on the Rheairds and take off for the dimensional rift Yuan opened up for them.

After a few minutes, Riku ends up back in Tethe'alla, but he takes a quick glance at Derris-Kharlan before he makes it there. After a few more minutes, he then flies straight for Altessa's house at high speeds, making it back there a good few minutes before Lloyd and the others arrived and landed their Rheairds. As Lloyd approaches from the entrance, he looks at Riku and says in a surprised tone "Huh? You made it back before us?"

"Well yeah, I'm actually really fast when it comes to aerial travel. You can't expect someone to travel the vast depths of space at 60 miles per hour, after all." Riku's explanation is met with a puzzled tilt from Genis, who asks "Huh? What's a mile?"

The teenage Overlord shakes his head and brushes the matter off with a simple "Never mind. So Mithos, you'll be sticking around here for a while, right?" Mithos looks at Riku and says to him "Y-Yeah. I hope you all come and visit me when you get a chance."

"Don't worry, we'll be back here eventually." Lloyd comments in an assuring tone, while Genis steps beside his friend and comments "Yeah, why wouldn't I come see my friend? …Sorry again about the flute, though."

"Genis…Stop worrying about that, I told you it'd be fine." Mithos quietly reassures his friend of this matter, and then looks towards Presea and says to her "Presea, while it's on my mind, I shall be praying for your success in avenging your sister."

"Wait, avenge her sister?" Regal's interest is piqued by this particular comment. Lloyd glances over at Regal and says to him "Oh yeah, sorry we hadn't told you yet. We were so wrapped up with Rodyle and the Otherworldly Gate that we forgot."

Zelos oddly tries to divert attention away from this matter by mumbling to Lloyd "Umm, hey, you know, that's not really a topic we need to drag out now, right?" Genis exclaims in disbelief to the Chosen "What the hell Zelos?! This is important! Presea's sister was killed?"

"Killed?" Regal says as he curiously tilts his head. Colette proceeds to explain "Yes. It seems Presea's younger sister served under a noble named Bryant…But then, he ended up…" As Colette sinks her head in sadness Sheena blurts out in anger "He's a monster! How can anyone kill a child like that?!"

"…It can't be, could it?" Regal whispers to himself as his face becomes somewhat pale. He then looks at Presea and asks of her "Presea, what was your sister's name?" She responds with a hesitant sounding "…Alicia…"

"…Then it's settled." Regal comments as he hangs his hands down in an almost shameful manner, which leads to Lloyd asking "Do you know something all this, Regal?"

Regal nods his head and bluntly demands of the group "Take me to Altamira. I believe I know who that murderer might be." Presea's thirst for vengeance comes to the surface as she proclaims excitedly "Really?!"

"Alright Regal, we'll make a detour to Altamira, for Presea's sake. Is that ok with everyone?" Lloyd asks. "Do you even need to ask? Let's just get a move on, I want that murderer brought to justice!" Sheena replies earnestly.

Mithos starts to head towards Altessa's house while everyone walks back for the Rheairds. With only Zelos and Riku lingering behind for a moment, the Chosen murmurs out "Damn it all, I was really hoping Regal wouldn't stick his neck out like that." The teenage Overlord glances back at Zelos and says to him "You pieced everything together as well?"

Zelos looks at him in surprise and says after a smirk "Sheesh, you have some really good ears Riku. Well, whatever, everything going to have to sort itself out once we get to Altamira. Let's get moving." The Chosen runs to catch up to the rest of the group, and Riku kicks off the ground ready to take flight for Altamira. The truth of Alicia's demise would soon be revealed…

_Next Time: A Tragic Affair_


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20: Regal Bryant and Presea Combatir**

After a short flight away from Altessa's house, the group ends up landing outside Altamira once more. With the fact that the sun was high again in Tethe'alla despite it being that way in Sylvarant, it was hard to tell how much time had passed since they had been in this city. But for Lloyd, it hadn't felt that long, as he comments in an obvious tone of voice "I really feel like we were JUST here."

"It's understandable to think that Lloyd, we only visited Sylvarant long enough to deal with Rodyle. Only a few hours have passed since we entered the Otherworldly Gate." Raine explains in her usual tone of wisdom, but Riku scratches the side of his head and asks in turn "So does this world just have a shorter day and night cycle than what I'm used to? Cause I swear that it should take at least 12 hours on average for the sun and moon to switch places."

"What's a day and night cycle?" Lloyd asks after turning to face Riku and blinking a couple of times in confusion. Riku sighs and lowers his right hand while commenting "I really need to stop using Earth exclusive terms around you guys. Never mind that Lloyd, we have bigger priorities here." The second part of his sentence is followed up by Riku glancing up at Regal, who walked past him and glanced at Lloyd after stopping his movements.

"Lloyd, where was it that you heard about Alicia again?" Regal asks in a curious tone, and Lloyd replies swiftly "A man named George told us about her grave at the Lezareno Company Building."

"George…" Regal whispered the man's name only to himself, but Raine caught on to the motion of his lips and grew rather suspect. Regal notices the suspicious glare coming from Raine's eyes and proceeds to mention "…Very well Lloyd, guide me to this grave."

After Lloyd nods his head he turns around and begins to move through Altamira with the rest of the group close behind, though Regal sticks beside Lloyd and glances off to the right when a path leading to a rather familiar tablet crosses his line of sight. _"Please…kill me…!" _A guttural voice echoes through Regal's memories, causing him to grimace in pain and look down at his shackled hands as he mutters to himself "Can I even bring myself to see you again…?"

Before the group reaches the small ferry to the Lezareno Building, Zelos folds his arms behind his head and comments to Sheena "Say, what did you call the person who killed Alicia again?" The ninja glances at the Chosen in confusion and replies "A monster, of course! What else could I call such an inhuman being?!"

The anger in her words made Zelos reply "Whoa now, settle down my feisty darling. Now, what is your opinion on Regal?" Sheena glares at Zelos first in anger for the first remark, then confusion upon recognizing his question before she replies "…Well, I was suspicious of him at first, being a convict and all, but he really doesn't seem like a terrible person."

"Well, thanks for telling me this Sheena. Now then, shall we get on?" Zelos stands at the side of the ferry and brushes his hands out towards it as Sheena glances at him and comments "…You really choose the oddest times to act weird, Zelos." She then gets on without any fuss, while Zelos lifts his eyelids up and whispers "Yeah, it won't seem weird in a bit…" He then nonchalantly steps onto the ride with everyone else.

The ferry automatically rides towards the Lezareno Building, where it takes only a few minutes for them to arrive just like before. But the moment they made it to the docking point, the group is shocked to find most of the guards thrown about with bullet wounds in their armor and blood leaking out from their backs. Lloyd wastes little time in letting out a surprised "What?!" Before he leaps over the rail seconds before it descends, running over to check the only living guard afterwards.

"What happened here, who did this?!" Lloyd demands answers from the fallen guard, but the man raises his hand up in agony and can only say as his final dying words "The Exsphere Broker…Vharley…went to the roof…"

When the group manages to exit the ferry, it was only Regal and Presea who managed to hear the man's words in time. Presea clenches her right fist in anger and growls out "Vharley…he must pay!" Presea wastes no time in running for the elevator while Regal scoffs in pain. The group runs after Presea before the elevator can close on them to ensure that she doesn't go running into a trap.

It doesn't take long for them to reach the top, and immediately after they rush out of the elevator they find Vharley with a gun pointed directly against George's head. The man had a desperate looking smirk on his face as he demanded from George "You WILL tell me the password to the inner area of the Toize Valley Mine. NOW!"

George, despite leaning against Alicia's grave with death just a mere press of the finger away, admits calmly to his aggressor "I know nothing about this matter." Vharley laughs at this and comments to the old man "Wrong answer!"

"You have done enough, Vharley. You want your password, then I will tell you." Regal bravely separates himself from the rest of the group and waits for Vharley to react as he stands a few feet behind him, while everyone watches on in confusion. "Master Regal! What are you doing here?" George glances past Vharley as the man pulls away his gun and turns around.

Vharley's smirk widens, and he comments in a delighted turn "Heheh, so the president himself decided to pay a visit. Perfect." Lloyd, Genis and Colette tilt their heads and comment simultaneously "President?"

"The route to the Toize Valley Mine opens by my voice print and cornea scan. Forcing it open would undoubtedly cause the Exsphere mine area to collapse." Regal's tone changes to a more business sounding one, but Vharley merely replies to this information by pointing his gun at him and commenting "If that's the case, Regal, you're just going to have to come open it for us! I'm going to be out of business if I don't get my hands on some more Exspheres."

"I think not. Besides, Rodyle is dead. You don't have anyone to sell your Exspheres too anymore." Regal explains the futility of Vharley's actions in a calm manner, but Vharley gives little care as he explains "Are you stupid? You think I only earned a profit from Rodyle?! I've got the Pope himself on my side! And anyone else who'd love to get their hands on some Exspheres will swarm to me with bags of Gald in their hands!"

Presea then whips out her axe and says to Vharley in tranquil anger "That's enough. I will not let you take another innocent life!" But before the girl can make a single move, Vharley points his gun at her and says "None of you move! I will be taking my leave now, or one of you will perish!"

"You think you can make such an empty threat, Vharley, especially when you hide behind such a tiny weapon?" Riku throws his right hand out and rips the gun out of Vharley's grip with his metal manipulation, then lifts it into the air and sets the gun powder inside the bullets on fire, causing the entire weapon to blow up from within and send metal scattering across the air. One shard flies straight into the side of Vharley's face, causing him to experience severe pain that makes him drop to his knees instantly.

"There's no reason why you should live, the world doesn't need scum like you. Presea, Regal, do whatever you want to him." Riku states in a rather callous tone, but a man such as Vharley deserved nothing less than that from him. Presea and Regal ready themselves to approach the man, but a flash bomb goes off and fills the area with a bright light. Everyone is blinded as a shadow runs straight to Vharley and picks his hefty body up by the back. Sheena looks her hardest through the bright light, recognizing the figure as Kuchinawa and proclaiming "Kuchinawa! You're working with this guy?!"

The ninja doesn't say a word as Vharley explains in rigid detail "Soon, the King will die and the Pope will take over. And when that happens, I'm going to grind your pathetic Lezareno Company into the ground!" Kuchinawa takes Vharley away in a puff of smoke as the light from the flash bomb vanishes. Riku takes his hand away from his eyes and comments _"That didn't happen before…I underestimated how prepared Kuchinawa could be. He has to die the next time I see him…"_

With Vharley now vanished from sight, Regal scowled, but moved away from his anger as he approached George and asked of him "Are you all right, George?" The old man lifts his body up and nods his head respectfully, stating in a gentle tone "Yes, Master Regal. Thank you."

The group glances at Regal in either confusion or in Zelos' case with a light smirk on his face, and the man turns around and stands upright in a proud manner before stating "My name is Regal Bryant. I was granted the title of Duke by His Highness, and I am also the president of the Lezareno Company. Although, it would seem that the Chosen and Riku knew about me."

Regal glances at Riku in a rather suspect manner, while Zelos comments as most of the group glances at him "I knew I saw you before. You were at one of Princess' birthday parties, right?" Regal nods his head after glancing at the Chosen, while Sheena shrugs and notes "Oh yeah, it's easy to forget that you're a member of high society, Zelos." This remark gains a chuckle out of Zelos.

"I see, so then you are Alicia's killer." Raine comments while folding her arms against her chest. Regal prepares to then look at Presea and explain himself, but before he can get a word out Presea takes her axe and swings the tip of the blade straight at Regal's neck. "How dare you…" Her words are bitter as her body trembled, and in a moment's time Presea lifts her head up and reveals the tears trickling down her face.

"How dare you demand to come here, murderer!" Presea lets out all of her rage in a single proclamation, and Regal can only remain quiet for a few seconds before he tries to explain "Please, Presea, you need to know what happened to Alicia-" But his explanation is cut short as Presea takes her axe and flips it to the blunt side, taking it out and swinging it against the side of Regal's body to send him crashing into the stone wall.

The stones crumble down upon Regal's body, leading to George proclaiming in surprise "Master Regal!" Presea swings her axe at the old man as she turns to face Regal, her mind consumed by rage as she states "If you move, old man, then I will consider you an accomplice and kill you too!"

Presea slams the handle of her axe across her hands and begins to walk towards Regal's fallen body, while Genis watches on and says "P-Presea, calm down! Lloyd, you have to stop her!" He desperately pleas to his friend to stop Presea from doing something she might regret, and after hearing a bit of what Regal was saying Lloyd felt that it wasn't right to let Presea go through with this and began to reach for both of his swords. However, Zelos walks beside him and grasps onto his right hand to get him to stop.

"Easy there Lloyd, you can't get between the two of them now." Zelos calmly states, leading to Genis angrily saying to him "What the hell are you doing Zelos?! If someone doesn't get in the way, then-"

"Then Regal will die. But if one of us tries to stop Presea now, she'll kill us and then Regal. I know what Regal was like when I was younger, he doesn't strike me as someone who'd murder for no reason. If he's in the right, then he'll live. If he's in the wrong, then Presea would get her revenge. In the end, there's only one person here who can tell us the truth…" Zelos glances towards Alicia's Exsphere, and though it was hard for Lloyd to do so he moved his hands away from his swords.

"Lloyd!" Genis states in disbelief, but Lloyd can only scoff and glare over at Presea, who was raising her axe up ready to cleave Regal in two. The man was buried partially by stone and dust, but he just sat there while lifting his head up slightly to look at the girl. "Perhaps it is best that I die by your hand…"

"No! You don't get to have pity for yourself! You killed my sister, the last member of my family I could have turned to! And you had the GALL to stick by our sides knowing that I was Alicia's sister?! Why did you do it…Why?!" Presea cries out in agony as she waits for an answer from Regal. The man calmly stated to Presea "I did it…for her own good…"

Presea slams her axe down without a second thought, but the blade crashes beside Regal instead of on top of his body, shaking the ground with the impact. Presea lifts her weapon back up and says "She served you loyally, did everything she could for you…And you killed her and made her into an Exsphere! How was any of that done for her own good?!"

"…Then so be it, I accept my fate." Regal gives up on trying to convince Presea, hoping that his lack of aggression would make her realize that he means no harm. But the girl saw nothing but a man who needed to die for killing her sister, and was ready to bring the axe down one last time to kill Regal. Riku notices Presea's lack of hesitation and thinks to himself _"What's going on…Presea never did this when she heard this news. I have to step in, now!"_

As Lloyd once again goes for his swords, Riku lifts his right hand up ready to wrench Presea's axe from her hands, only for a familiar voice to briefly snap Presea out of her anger. "Presea, you can't kill Master Bryant!" Presea's eyes widen and she doesn't drop her axe any further than halfway there, and both her and Regal glance at the gravestone while calmly stating "Alicia?"

Sure enough, Alicia's spirit finally appeared in front of her gravestone, and with a smile on her face she looked at Regal and commented "Master Bryant, I'm so happy to see you again before I vanished…" Regal began to rise to his feet, brushing aside the rubble that fell atop his body and saying in a taken-aback tone "I'm sorry, Alicia, even after death you still suffer…"

Presea doesn't know just how to react to what was happening. Alicia was wishing for her not to kill Regal in spite of the fact that he was the man who killed her. "What's going on here…" The girl whispers out as she stands in place for a few seconds in a contemplative manner before putting her axe away and walking over to the front of Alicia's grave to find out more about why her sister had this attitude towards Regal.

"It's all right, heh. It's not your fault." Alicia smiles at Regal with all of her might as she reassures the man of his lack of sin. Presea gets right to the point and demands of her sister "Alicia, how can you forgive this man for killing you?! I thought you wanted him dead!"

"…Huh?" Regal was confused by Presea's words, and turned towards Alicia in hopes for an answer. Alicia places one hand on her chest, feeling sorrow for what she had accidentally wrought upon her own sister before she explains. "Presea, my dear sister…I'm sorry you thought that of what I was telling you. But it's time you learned of my relation to Master Bryant, or should I say, rather…"

"Our love for one another." Regal finishes the sentence off, looking at Presea's surprised expression as the aftermath of his words breach her mind. "It all started years ago…" Alicia was the one to start the story, as the rest of the group listened in and Regal provided his own view at certain parts.

"_It all started not long after you went to get help from that vile man Vharley and became possessed by the Exsphere. I was still young at the time, so I didn't know what was happening to you. It scared me that you seemed to move around like a zombie, and never spent anymore time speaking to me or my father. But in hindsight, I wish I had been around long enough to notice that something was that wrong with you."_

"_Some time after you went to Vharley, I was told by my father to go out in search of a job for myself. It felt wrong to abandon him with just Presea, but he insisted that I go, and then he gave me a piece of paper showing that a young man by the name of Duk Bryant was looking for servants. Taking a boat to Altamira, I went to the Lezareno Company Building to try and get a job."_

"_At the time, I was only 14 years old, a young and brash man with the control of an entire company. Alicia came into my office with George's guidance, and I was taken aback by how polite and humble she was in my presence. After hearing about her qualifications, I hired her on the spot, and left George to train her in the ways of servitude." _

"_George taught me well, and it only took me a year before I was ready to work for Duke Bryant to the best of my ability. By that time, I was 9-years old. I worked to the hardest of my abilities, never once complaining or asking for a vacation in all my years of service. Half of the money I received, I sent off to my dad and Presea, but I was incapable of going back home while I was in service."_

"_At first, Alicia and I rarely interacted with one another, specifically since my duties as the President of the Lezareno Company and Duke of Altamira meant I had to leave often. But even so, I always admired her steadfast determination and kind heart."_

"_And I admired the kinder side that Master Byrant showed me when it was just the two of us alone. I cared nothing for his status. I worked for Master Bryant for ten years, but it was during my early teenage years that I began to feel infatuation towards him…But I knew that the age difference between us would mean that true love could never be possible. To my surprise though, I never saw Master Bryant with another woman, even though by all means he should be the most desirable man in Tethe'alla."_

"_Because in the end, there was only one woman I had my eyes on, and it wasn't until the day she was old enough that I told her to come to the garden atop the Lezareno Building to confess my love for her. The sun was setting by the time she arrived, and I was wearing the humblest clothes I could find. I remember the look in her eyes all-too well when I said those three words, 'I love you'."_

"_We both made a confession that day to love each other for the rest of time, and Master Bryant vowed that he would settle down in a few years time once he found someone capable of taking over the Lezareno Company. Our marriage was to occur a year later, but fate transpired to separate us forever…" _

"You see, on the day those two confessed their love…I was watching from afar, and feared for the state of the Lezareno Company were Master Bryant to let himself be consumed by this love." George interrupts the tale for a moment to say his side of the tale in a melancholy tone. As his eyelids droop in sorrow, he then proceeds to comment "I was a blind old fool…My personal interests took precedence over my masters wishes, and I-I…Tricked Alicia into being taken away by Vharley for an experiment."

"…_Indeed, it is as George says. A few days after our confession, I promised Alicia that I would take her back to Ozette to see her family for the first time in ten years. We were to meet outside the hotel, but instead I only met that despicable man, Vharley. He stated that he had captured Alicia as a hostage, and would only surrender her back to me if I gave him access to the Toize Valley Mine."_

"_I complied without hesitation, and then plead to Vharley to return Alicia to me…But it was already too late. Vharley delivered on his promise in the most despicable of manners, delivering to me the monstrous result of the experiment on Alicia. She had become a creature of mutated flesh, with her maid's clothes torn apart from the strain placed on them…"_

"_Damn you Vharley! What have you done Alicia?!" The Regal of the past cries out in anger as the Exebula that was once his lover thrashes about in pain. Vharley smirks callously at the remark and says to him in response "Heheh, she wasn't compatible with the Exsphere experiment. But I guess it doesn't matter since it worked so well on another member of her family!" _

"_You monster!" The Regal of the past tries to run straight at Vharley with all of his anger, but he is not permitted to ignore his lover, who with little control over her body swung her dangling right arm into Regal's body, sending him flying away from the hotel and into the lone path where the large stone would one day be placed. His body skid back, ripping into the back of his shirt until the moment he stopped._

_The Exebula limbered over to where Regal was, and the intrigued Vharley walked over to witness these events unfold, enjoying it all the while. Regal rose to his feet as a scorching pain radiated across his back and looked up at Alicia, his heart beat rising in pain as he finds himself incapable of recognizing the woman he loved. "Alicia…Are you still there? Please, PLEASE SPEAK TO ME!" He cried out in desperation in hopes that Alicia would reply._

_The Exebula paused in placed mere inches away from Regal's body, and with a sorrowful roar it raised its claws to it's head and trembled around in pain. "M-Master…Regal…I can't control it…I'm so sorry…Please…You have to kill me…Before I kill you!" Regal's eyes widened in disbelief. The voice was distorted, but it was definitely Alicia that spoke through this towering monstrosity's body._

"_Alicia…I-I can't do it! There has to another way to save you! I will pool all of my resources into finding a way, this can't be the end after we both admitted our love to one another!" Regal begs his lover to not accept death, and tears began to trickle down his eyes as he asked this of her. Alicia admitted in a docile tone of voice "Master Bryant…I can't let you destroy everything you've worked so hard to build for my sake…No matter what you do, I will always be this monster…Please, preserve the pleasant memories of me inside your heart while you still can."_

"_Alicia…I can't do it! How can I possibly kill you with my own two hands?!" Regal cries out in agony, and as the Exebula's arms began to move away from the head Alicia's voice diminishes with these final words "It's because you love me that I know you will do it…I'm sorry, Master Bryant…" _

_The Exebula prepared to go on the offensive again, and with his hands gripped close to his heart Regal closes his eyes and takes Alicia's advice, remembering the times the two shared across ten years of history. He then took both of his hands and clenched the palms together, thrusting them forward with all of his anger as tears erupted from his eyes and a beam of raw mana tore right through the Exebula's chest before the creature could lower it's claw down to kill Regal._

_Vharley looked on in sheer disbelief at the power Regal displayed, his heart skipping a beat as his enjoyment suddenly shifted to complete and utter fear. The Exebula's body began to fall, and Regal caught it underneath the armpits with both of his arms. He was trembling at the events that unfolded before him, and it took him a moment to realize that blood had gushed out from the core and landed on his hands. _

_Not only that, but when he felt the skin of this monster he could only feel coldness. The creature was never once warm like Alicia herself used to be, and it's entire existence was a mockery of everything she worked hard for. Regal raised his head to the sky and roared out in agony for ten seconds, his voice nearly going hoarse in the process. When he was done, he cuddled the monster in his arms and then laid it against the ground while rising up to his feet. _

_With the blood of his lover on his hands, Regal could only direct his anger at a single person. A deceitful, callous human by the name of Vharley, who as Regal swiftly noticed was trying to escape from Altamira now that everything had seemingly backfired. "VHAAAARRRRLEEYY!" Regal's angered cry ripped through Altamira, sending an inhuman shiver down Vharley's spine, and he made the foolish mistake of glancing back as the man rampaged straight at him without any diversion._

_Regal's hands were clenched in anger, but to his misfortune the rampage he made was interpreted as a burst of insanity from the denizens of Altamira who failed to understand what happened between him and the monster that was once Alicia. Vharley ran for his life, but he was but a mere human and in his current state Regal was nothing more than a rage-consumed beast. Regal leaped over the sign over the entrance to the city and crashed on the ground in front of Vharley, ripping apart the ground as he glanced over his shoulder with a piercing glare at the man._

"_B-Back away from me! HELP! He plans to murder me as well!" Vharley resorted to a coward's plea as he tried to back away from Regal's wrathful stance as he rose up and turned around, stating in a tone of tranquil fury "You are not allowed to play the victim after everything you've done to Alicia, Vharley! I am the President of the Lezareno Company, and I will make damn sure that I will use my resources of make you suffer in ways that will be ten times as terrible as the fate you inflicted upon Alicia!"_

_But before Regal can grab Vharley and bring him in for his crimes, four pikes bind Regal in place, each one wielded by a Papal Knight. Regal looks around in confusion, stating in an embittered tone "Unbind me! This is treason, Vharley is the one you want!"_

"_Duke Bryant…You are under arrest for the murder of countless innocents in Altamira, including your own servant, Alicia Combatir." One Papal Knight calmly spoke, leading to Vharley laughing subtly before Regal as the man began to piece together what was going on. Vharley had used Alicia to murder countless others, and then preemptively used those murders to pin the blame on him. _

"_Do you have any objections to these claims?" The same Papal Knight asked, and it doesn't take Regal long to sink his head and admit with a tired breath "…No. I murdered Alicia Combatir in cold blood." He glanced at the blood on his hands, and though he knew that it was the right thing to do the fact of the matter is that only he held the truth in his head. To the rest of the world, he murdered an innocent girl and many others. _

_As these thoughts crossed his mind, the Papal Knights shackled his arms together by the wrists and began to escort him away from Altamira to pay for his crimes. The last thing Regal saw before he was placed on the boat was Vharley's vile, callous grin…_

With the story at an end, Genis can only comment in a surprised tone "That was just like what happened with Marble…" After that, George looked at Regal and admitted to him "I came across Alicia's body after you were taken away, and she had been transformed into an Exsphere. I took the Exsphere and brought it to the garden, making a gravestone not only to honor her life, but to also have it serve as a reminder of my foolish mistake…"

"George…You didn't know what would happen to Alicia. While I cannot forgive you for trying to separate us, I will not let you share Alicia's blood on your hands." Regal calmly states to his servant, and the man nods his head and agrees with the sentiment. "Hehe, I'm so glad I got to see you again in the end, Master Br-No, Regal Bryant. I have no regrets now, so please, stop punishing yourself." Alicia says, which causes Regal to turn and face her.

"But with my owns hands, I…" Regal begins to sink his head in regret, but stops when Alicia points out "I will disappear very soon. So please, don't leave me anything to worry about. You don't need those shackles. You've suffered enough."

Regal shakes his head and admits with all of his heart "I took the life of the one I love. These are the symbol of my crime, as well as my punishment." Alicia floats forward slightly and looks Regal straight in the eyes, saying with the utmost and delicate honesty "You don't need that punishment anymore. Please, Regal…"

Regal stands in silence for a few seconds until Lloyd walks up beside him, glancing directly at his face and admitted in a solemn voice "Genis and I once experienced the same thing you did. And I also imagined what it must have been like…for my dad. When my mom turned into a monster and he struck her down, he must have suffered as well."

"…Your father did the same thing?" Regal looks at Lloyd and asks, leading to Lloyd nodding his head and replying in turn "That's what I heard. I don't know if the decisions you or my dad made were correct, but I don't think my mom would have wanted my dad to punish himself and live the way you have."

Regal looks at Alicia and asks of her "Is that true?" Alicia nods her head and smiles, admitting to him with a warm tone of voice "Yes. It's just as he says. At least, I don't want you to live like that." With heavy convincing from his lover and Lloyd, Regal takes a momentary pause before stating confidently "All right. But I will never use these hands as tools of death. I swear that to all of you. And once we have defeated those who use Exspheres to toy with people's lives, I shall remove these bonds."

Alicia presses her hands together in front of her chest and cracks a smile while saying in an appreciative tone "Thank you, Master. Presea…I think I can finally rest in peace. Please destroy the crystal before I am completely absorbed into the Exsphere." Presea grimaces at her sister in surprise and says "Why? Can't you stay like you are now?" Her words were surprisingly selfish in nature.

"If I stay like this, I will live on forever. An isolated consciousness, unable to even speak, existing for eternity. It would be true hell…" Alicia admits. Presea shakes her head in turn, saying to her sister "This isn't fair! You're my sister! There has to be some way to bring you back! You only knew me half of your life, and I never even knew what happened to you until now!"

"…Presea, it's true I only knew you eight years of my life, but those are eight years worth of memories that I will treasure forever. I will hold them in equal regard to my memories with Regal, no matter what happens after my consciousness passes on. I believe in you Presea, I know you are ready to say goodbye. You've always been strong, that's why you were always the one I looked up to whenever I worked here…" Alicia's admission quickly brings Presea to the verge of tears.

Presea bites on the bottom part of her lips and starts to raise her axe, looking at Alicia's Exsphere as bittersweet memories being to flow through her mind. Bringing the weapon down, Presea and Alicia both experience one intertwining memory for the final time…

"_Presea, has papa ever told you about a city called Altamira?" The young Alicia asks her sister as they sit at the edge of the coast near Ozette and look out at the bright moon sky. "Altamira? Mmm-hmm…" Presea nods her head and says with a chipper smile "Papa said that it's a beautiful place. They have rides and other fun attractions for visitors to spend time on, and the city is fully supported by the kindly Bryant family!"_

"_Hahaha, that sounds like such a fun place to go!" Alicia laughs cheerfully. Presea nods her head and admits "I would love to go there someday. Wouldn't you?" Alicia nods her head without hesitation, puffing her cheeks out in joy before leaning her head back and stating "And papa can come with us once he gets better!"_

"_Yeah, that'd be nice. Tomorrow I'm going to try out this experimental process that will allow me to use an axe more efficiently, so I can earn a lot of money chopping wood. With that money, we'll help papa get better, and then all three of us can go to Altamira together!" Presea enthusiastically states. Alicia smiles and says "Yeah, we'll all have a wonderful time! Thank you, Presea…" _

The memories end with an echo of past and present, as we find Presea with her axe crashed against the ground and Alicia's Exsphere shattered into nothingness. With the last breath her consciousness allows, Alicia says to her sister "Please…Forgive Master Regal…Please…" To those who could see her spirit fade away, they would notice a single tear trickling down her face.

Presea, on the other hand, was quietly sobbing to herself as she fell to her knees and let go of her axe, clasping both hands against the front of her face as she let herself cry out for the loss of her sister's life in this world. Her voice was quiet as she cried, and no one in the group bothered to console her for the time being, since this was something she had to handle on her own.

Once the time of mourning had passed, Presea picked up her axe and rose to her feet, wiping away the tears with one hand before turning to face Regal. Presea doesn't say anything at the moment, which leads to Regal mentioning to the group "While I was in prison, the Pope promised to arrest Vharley in exchange for kidnapping Colette. I believed him and agreed to do it. So please, I ask you to postpone my final judgment until we Cruxis and stop them from using Exspheres to toy with people's lives."

"That's up to Presea to decide. We already through of you as a friend." Lloyd says in a rather mature tone of voice. Regal looks at Presea and waits for her to respond, and as she puts her axe away she says "Vharley was response for Alicia's death as well. Okay. I'll…try not to think of you as my enemy. I'm not sure I can change right away, but…"

"I'm sorry…" Regal apologizes, and Presea replies simply with "It was Alicia's last request, so I won't say a word about it anymore."

With the matter of Alicia settled for now, Regal tells George to continue to maintain control over the Lezareno company until he is done with his quest. The group then begins to depart from the building, with Zelos commenting "So now that that little moment is over, what's next?"

"Hmm, we need to go back to dealing with the Summon Spirits, right? Who is left?" Riku asks, leading to Regal commenting in his wise sounding tone "There is Shadow in the Temple of Darkness."

"And Luna and Aska on the Tower of Mana back in Sylvarant." Raine adds in her own information, and after a momentary pause Lloyd recalls "Well Aska requires a lengthy process to summon forth, right? We should save those two for last and just deal with Shadow while we're here."

"I can agree with that. So let's go straight for the Temple of Darkness. From what I heard, it's just a little way away from the Temple of Earth." Zelos explains the details to the group, and with a nod of agreement they began to head out of Altamira. Before they left though, Riku thought to himself _"Darkness and Light remain…I still haven't heard anything from Sodenko and Takashi since that one instance. Have they been absorbed into the mana flow between worlds? Can that 'higher-ups' barrier actually do that? Huh, I'll only know once we form a pact with Shadow. Here I come, Temple of Darkness…"_

_Next Time: The Masked Marauder_


	21. Announcement

I'm having a bit of a writer's block for the moment, so I'm taking a week off to regain my thoughts and plan ahead for the next half of the story. I figure now is a good time to take a break anyways, so hey, there's that.

While I'm gone, feel free to catch up, review, do whatever you feel is necessary. I'll be back in due time.


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21: The Debut of the Mysterious Swordsman!**

After leaving Altamira be for now, the group take to the skies with their Rheairds once more. They were making their way to the Temple of Darkness to resume their pacts with the Summon Spirits. With the directions given to them by Regal, they make their way north of the Temple of Earth and find another cavern secluded in a rocky wall. After landing their rides on the ground, they began to trek into the darkened cavern.

But immediately upon entering, everyone is blinded by pitch black darkness, removing vision from even their own bodies much to their surprise. Standing still to avoid tripping a trap in this darkness, Lloyd comments in a puzzled tone "What the heck? Why can't we see?"

"It must be Shadow's influence. To think that he'd be able to affect his own temple to such a degree." Raine comments without little concern towards the darkness. Riku then brings up as he flicks his fingers to try and ignite a flame "Darkness is always one of the toughest elements. I can't even see my flames now, though it might just be the thick amount of mana in the air holding it back…"

Riku clenches his fist and waits for a response from the others. "We should probably go back to the Elemental Research Lab. They've probably done enough research to figure out how to deal with this darkness." Sheena offers up a solution to the problem at hand, and Raine nods in agreement and says "It'll be dangerous to walk through Meltokio, but I don't see any better choice. Let's go."

After performing a safe 180, everyone walks out of the Temple of Darkness and makes their way back to the Rheairds, taking off with them and making a straight flight to Meltokio. It had been quite a while since they had been in the capital city of Tethe'alla, but after they landed they find that nothing has changed in the front gates. Two guards still kept the doors locked before, forcing everyone to make another detour through the sewer to get back to the city itself.

Once there, they stayed on guard as they pushed through the hustle and bustle of city life, keeping a particular eye out for any of the Papal Knights so they don't cause any trouble. But before they pass the swarm of people and make it to the Lab, a particular figure gets in their way. It was Kratos once again, only this time he was wearing a more casual looking dark purple outfit that had extensions of cloth on his shoulders and a leather sheath for his sword.

The group immediately stops, with Lloyd blurting out in surprise "Kratos!" Instead of the man responding to Lloyd, he glances at Presea and politely asks her "I heard that sacred wood only grows in the area surrounding Ozette. Is that right?"

Presea is surprised by this question and asks "Y…yes…" Kratos nods his head and admits "I see, then that means that it would no longer exist, correct?" Presea replies in turn after a moment of hesitation "…The wood I cut is stored in the church."

"Then that's all that is left…It seems I have no choice." Kratos is about to depart after this comment, but Lloyd stops him with an extended arm and glares at him while asking "Hold on. Why is Cruxis worried about sacred wood?"

Kratos naturally replies with "Because it is necessary…What other reason could there be?" Lloyd isn't accepting of that response and exclaims to him "Necessary for what?!" Kratos glances away from Lloyd and says in a calm manner "I do not feel the need to tell you that now. By the way, Lloyd. The Summon Spirit pacts you are currently forming…you must stop."

Lloyd stares at Kratos in disbelief for a few seconds before replying "…Do you think we'll stop because you said so?" Kratos lowers his eyelids and notes "It is dangerous to engage in activities in which you cannot predict the outcome of. It may result in something you cannot undo."

"But if there is no other way to save both worlds, then we have to do it!" Lloyd replies in full force, and Kratos advises him calmly "…Be patient, Lloyd." He then walks off, only exchanging a brief glance with Riku before departing all the way. Lloyd turns towards the departing Kratos and comments in a puzzled tone "…What is he talking about?"

"He's just trying to dissuade us Lloyd. Don't worry about him, let's just go figure out how to deal with that icky little darkness, ok?" Zelos tries to divert Lloyd's attention away from Kratos' words to great effect, leading to Lloyd nodding his head and commenting "Yeah, you're right."

After a quick return to the road ahead, the group enters the Elemental Research Laboratory, where they are immediately greeted with surprise by the green-haired half-elf that helped them out before. "Sheena! And everyone else…" He says, and Sheena gets straight to the point by asking "We have a bit of a favor to ask of you all…We need to figure out how to enter the Temple of Darkness."

"Oh…You came across Shadow's darkness, didn't you? Hmm, I'm not going to question why you are after the Summon Spirits now, but I believe the answer lies within the blue candle." The man explains. Lloyd asks afterwards "Blue candle?"

"It's a holy candlestick that negates the power of darkness. You that here?" Raine explains and then inquires of the man, who nods and proceeds to detail to the group "Relying on ancient documents, we succeeded in creating it here in our lab."

"Then, could we borrow one?' Lloyd politely asks, but before the man could offer it to them without hesitation another half-elf with glasses and slick back blonde hair blurts out angrily at the group "Hey! It's these guys' fault that Kate was arrested! You can't help them!"

The group flinched in surprise, with Lloyd in particular commenting "What? Kate was arrested?!" The green-haired half-elf explains hesitantly "Sigh…Kate is going to be executed for harboring criminals and helping them escape."

"It's because of us…Damnit!" Lloyd slams his fist against the wall behind him in anger, with Colette pointing out "We should go and save Kate!" Soon afterwards. Lloyd pulls his fist away from the wall and says "Yeah, but how?"

Regal offers his knowledge to the group with a simple suggestion "How about participating in the matches being held at the Coliseum?" Zelos is a little puzzled by this and asks "Huh? Why there?" Regal explains in great detail "It was originally constructed to watch fights between prisoners and wild beasts. There is a passage inside the prison which allows prisoners to be taken into the Coliseum."

"Oh yeah, I guess you'd know about that…Yeah, Kate is probably somewhere down there." Zelos points out. The blonde half-elf begs of them "Then hurry and save Kate!" The group wastes little time in leaving the laboratory and moving straight for the western side of Meltokio with Zelos' guidance, eventually arriving at the lively Coliseum.

The roars of the crowd could be heard coming from inside, and Lloyd comments in a worrying tone "I hope Kate isn't being forced to fight before the execution…" "Don't worry about it Lloyd, they don't do that here." Zelos reassures his buddy with his words, to which Lloyd thanks him for a moment later.

Upon entering the Coliseum, the group finds a receptionist at the desk a few feet in front of them along with a few armored guards moving around. Thankfully, none of them were Papal Knights, meaning caution wasn't necessary. Even so, there was another issue that needed to be discussed before they approached the receptionist. "Hold up Lloyd." Regal stops the group with those words, and once they turn to look at him Regal explains "We shouldn't go sign up for battle quite yet."

"Why not? Kate could be executed at any time!" Lloyd is puzzled by this matter until Raine picks up Regal's intentions and explains "Regal has a point actually. Almost all of us are recognized as criminals in Meltokio. If we go into an event largely organized by the Church of Martel, there's no doubt we'll be arrested. The only ones who have a chance of entering safely are Presea, Zelos, and Riku."

"That's well and good, but I think you're overestimating Presea and Riku's chances here professor." Zelos comments in a somewhat serious tone, and as everyone looks at Zelos he further explains "Considering Kuchinawa's connection to the Pope, there's no doubt he spilt the beans that Presea's gone rouge and Riku's on our side. I'm the only one who can feasibly fight for Kate's sake."

"If Kuchinawa's information is a reason for concern, then you aren't safe as well, Zelos." Riku points out, to which the Chosen wags his finger and replies "Ah ah ah, you forget, I still have my status as the Chosen, and I'm loved by everyone in Meltokio! If they tried to arrest me, they'd risk complete and utter panic from the citizens."

"…Zelos may be exaggerating a bit on the 'loved by everyone' part, but he does bring a good point." Sheena begrudgingly admits, but Raine says in rebuttal "You are being far too arrogant about this Zelos. You think the Pope won't have enough pull to turn the people against you?"

"Not really, no. But if you're gonna be so concerned about this, then I got an idea on how to make things better." Zelos smiles and starts to dash for the exit, but before he leaves he turns and says to the group "Wait here for a bit, I'll be right back!" He then runs out of sight, leaving the group confused but stationary for the next few minutes.

Eventually Zelos comes back, but in a rather different garb than what you'd expect him to be wearing. He had on two ivory gloves and a fancy ivory top hat with a white feather sticking out to the left side. The most noticeable thing though was the beaked white eye mask covering Zelos' face. "W-What the hell are you doing in that get-up, Zelos?!" Sheena looks at Zelos and exclaims as though the Chosen had lost his mind.

"Zelos? My dear madam of voluptuous nature, I am not a man that goes by such a name. I am an identity of pure mystery, whose mask causes all ladies to swoon!" Zelos hams things up with a fake accent, which causes Sheena to just slap her face and groan in pain.

"…Well I have to admit, this is unorthodox, but it should prevent you from being recognized by those high in the stands." Raine coldly points out, which leads to Zelos gesturing at her with one hand and commenting "Such a cold reception, I suppose thou is not a fan of my work."

"Zelos, you can cut the act while you're around us." Lloyd comments, even though he's somewhat enjoying Zelos' act. Zelos replies in turn "Forsooth, Sir Bud, I am just acting as I normally would."

"Ok you two, before you get too out of hand, need I remind you that Kate needs to be rescued?" Regal tries to set the group back on track, to which Zelos nods his head and points out "Fine, fine. But before I go handle the Coliseum for us, I think it's only right that I come up with a name for myself."

"A name? You mean like a superhero?" Riku questions, which leads to a little confusion from the group before the teenage Overlord notes to himself "…Didn't I already say that I didn't want to do this anymore." He then points out as a short explanation "I'm just saying that because he's wearing a mask to hide his identity. So what do you want to call yourself, Zelos?"

"That's a good question…Oh! How about the Chivalrous Cavalryman?!" Zelos enthusiastically tosses out an idea, and Sheena replies with blunt sarcasm "More like the Cantankerous Charlatan." 

Zelos looks at Sheena and replies "Hey, I am NOT Cantankerous, Sheena!" He doesn't even realize he didn't bother to respond to the other part of the name by the time he relaxes himself. Lloyd thinks to himself for a few seconds before snapping his fingers and saying to Zelos "I got it! How about the Nobleman of Tethe'alla?"

"Hmmm, Nobleman of Tethe'alla? Short and to the point, I like it. Alright, I guess I'll go sign-up under that name, thanks Lloyd!" Zelos is happy with the idea and begins to head to the receptionist desk, while Lloyd gives him a confident sounding "Good luck Zelos, we're counting on you!"

Zelos smirks and says quietly to himself "Heh, you do, huh? …Damn it Lloyd." Putting himself back into a cheerful demeanor, the masked Zelos walks up to the desk and looks at the lady manning it, letting out a gentle cough before he comments "Ah, my sweet young lass, I desire so fervently to enter this fantastic Coliseum competition!"

The lady peaks up, and immediately cracks into a swooning smile as she says "Ah, it's you, Chosen Zelos. I'm surprised to see you coming around here, especially in such a silly looking getup." Zelos chuckles nervously and comments "Ah-Ah no. I'm not Zelos, I am the Nobleman of Tethe'alla, hero of the ladies and honor of Meltokio!"

"Hehe, is that so?" The lady humored Zelos' actions with a blush on her face, and in turn Zelos winked past his mask and commented "Yes, I believe so. So, am I to be entered in this fine competition, my dear?"

"Absolutely. I will sign you up for a four round battle." The lady reaches for a clipboard and writes down "The Nobleman of Tethe'alla" on it, after which Zelos bows his head and comments "I thank you, my dear. And if it's not too troublesome, I would like my not-as-beautiful friends to be allowed to spectate without any fuss or muss."

"Are you referring to the group standing behind you? For you, 'Nobleman of Tethe'alla', it would be an honor. Just enter the Coliseum through the left, and your friends shall enter the stands through the right. Your match shall begin in about five minutes." After the receptionist lady says this, Zelos nods his head and nonchalantly moves to the left side of the area, where the guard there opens the way to the inner portion of the Coliseum.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group walks towards the right side of the room, where the guard there opens the way to the stands, allowing them to climb the staircase and get a fantastic view of the sand filled arena below. After finding a surprisingly empty row of seats, the group sits down and takes in the cheerful roar of the crowd around them. The Coliseum was likely filled with over a thousand citizens, which made the noise that much more prominent.

"I've never been in a Coliseum before." Riku comments in a rather enticed tone of voice as he leans forward slightly to get a better view of the arena itself. Regal comments "I would assume no one but myself has been in one before."

"In that case, could you tell us how this will work for Zelos?" Raine asks in a curious tone of voice. Regal nods his head and explains "Zelos will fight a four round battle against increasingly stronger foes, and once he is done he will be escorted to the cell area, where he'll either wait for another four rounds or leave for the day. He's not a prisoner, after all."

"And then he'll free Kate? So once the four rounds are over, we'll leave for the entrance and wait for him there. Sounds simple enough." Lloyd comments, leading to Regal nodding his head again and saying "Assuming that Zelos is successful in defeating the monsters. Remember, these are fights to the death, so there will be no such thing as 'mercy' from the owners."

"He may be a goof at times, but I know Zelos can handle himself in battle." Sheena says. "It's starting guys! Quiet down!" Lloyd enthusiastically says, leading to a sharp retort from Genis "Lloyd, I think being quiet ruins the purpose of a Coliseum."

"…Shut up Genis." Lloyd bemoans after a momentary pause. The group then watches as the two gates open up, and an announcer walks out from the southern one that causes the crowd to go quiet for a few moments. The man roars up to the crowd "Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to today's competition in the Meltokio Coliseum! Introducing, in the southern corner…"

In expected fashion, Zelos emerges from the southern gate performing some sort of suave tap-dancing maneuver with oddly enough a rose gripped between his teeth. "Wait, where did he get THAT?" Riku comments in a very confused tone of voice. Zelos plucks the rose from his mouth and gives it to the announcer guy, commenting in an accented tone of voice "Perhaps this will help thou get the ladies."

The announcer, very confused by what the man just said, says to everyone as Zelos walks out and waves his arms out towards the audience "U-Umm…This is the Nobleman of Tethe'alla, everyone!" Lloyd lowers his eyelids in disbelief and comments "…Boy, he's really not being subtle with his disguise, is he?"

Raine slaps the front of her forehead and sighs, saying to Lloyd in turn "I'm starting to believe that we should have just gone for a straight forward jailbreak at this point." To which Riku replies "We can still do that, it'll save us a lot of trouble at this rate."

Regal looks around, commenting in a rather surprised tone of voice as the audience cheers "…It seems no one has noticed Zelos' true identity. A fortunate thing for us. We'll just wait and watch things out."

After sitting down and waiting for the battles to begin, the announcer introduces Zelos' opponents, three armored criminals that wield a shield, sword, and glaive respectively. Zelos pulls out his sword and shield and smiles while waiting for the signal from the announcer to begin fighting. Once it's time to start, Zelos is the first to charge at his opponents.

It doesn't take long for Zelos to deal with them, and the next two rounds go by in an equally swift amount of time. The Chosen's skills were undeniable even on his own, and the crowd was really getting into the swing of things by the time Zelos sheathed his blade for a moment after the third round was over. While the corpses of the three ogres he dealt with were carried out of the battlefield, Zelos turned towards the audience and swung his arms out, blowing kisses for all the pretty ladies out there.

With the group, Colette, Genis and surprisingly Presea were really getting into the battles, their faces alight with excitement as they pumped their fists into the air in unison with the crowd. Meanwhile, Riku is leaning back in his seat while commenting loud enough for the others to hear "I have to admit, it's taking a lot of effort to not join in on the excitement. Guess that's the warrior in me talking, though."

"It's a good thing that Zelos is facing convicts and monsters though. Had he been fighting anyone like Regal, then I'd be disgusted by this whole affair." Raine solemnly comments. "…It seems that I was concerned over nothing, they appear to be going easy on the monsters today, probably because they recognize 'The Nobleman of Tethe'alla' as a newcomer."

Down below, the announcer is about ready to introduce the final opponent, when all of a sudden a Papal Knight runs out and whispers in the man's ear, causing him to pause for a few moments much to the concern of the on looking group. The Papal Knight runs off, and the announcer looks up at the audience while saying "It seems we have a change of plans for the final round! Introducing in the northern corner…!"

Suddenly, the ground starts to tremble beneath Zelos' feet, causing him to stop his showboating and turn around towards the gate as he notices a hulking creature emerge from within the depths of the Coliseum. The announcer makes a run for it as the back of the creature brushes against the top of the gate, breaking it apart with it's bony spikes as it moves.

Regal's eyes widen in shock, and with a sharp gritting of his teeth he notes "Damn, it seems the Pope is watching the affair today." "Huh? What are you talking about Regal?" Lloyd asks, to which the man quickly replies with "The Pope is the only one who ever authorizes this dragon to be used in the Coliseum. For this to be happening, that means Zelos' identity has been discovered, and the Pope is hoping to kill him here and now."

"What?! Then we have to help him!" Lloyd is about ready to stand up and leap into the arena, when Raine lifts her arm up to block him while quietly commenting "Lloyd, if you do this now, you will only hasten Kate's execution. Besides, don't you trust Zelos to win?"

"…No, you're right, sorry Professor." Lloyd sits back down, though he groans slightly at the matter at hand. On the battlefield, Zelos draws his sword as the hulking dragon pulls the remainder of his body from the Coliseum and immediately stands himself upright, towering over the Chosen with his brown-thick scaled hide and multitude of sandy, spiked protrusions.

"Heh, this must be a really special day if a big boy like you is here to fight me." Zelos takes the matter with little concern, even when the dragon opens his mouth and roars loudly at him. Zelos then leaps back as the dragon swings his tail at him, taking some time to examine his opponent before making any foolish attacks.

Meanwhile in the stands, Lloyd feels the need to ask Regal "Say Regal, you said you fought in the Coliseum before, right? What do you know about the dragon?" Regal slowly replies "…Remember how I said that Coliseum matches are fights to the death? What does it say when this dragon is still alive? There is not a single competitor strong enough to put a dent in that creature's hide."

"…Rodyle bred this dragon, didn't he?" Raine asks, to which Regal replies "I would say that is a fair assumption, considering his connection to the Pope. Even after death that man still manages to get in our way…"

Speaking of the Pope, in the highest reaches of the Coliseum the golden garbed Pope is seen sitting down, ruffling his brown mustache as he held his hooked staff in one hand and rested the other on the side of his body. While he looked at Zelos fighting the dragon, Kuchinawa appeared beside him and walked up, causing the Pope to comment "Kuchinawa…What news do you have for me?"

With a whisper, Kuchinawa's words cause the Pope's eyes to widen in fear before he proclaims "Rodyle is dead?! No…He was the only reason we were able to keep that dragon from going after the audience!" The ninja says "Should I deal with the creature?"

The Pope hesitantly shakes his head and comments "No. The Chosen is down there right now. Let the dragon kill him and his likely nearby friends, and then we'll destroy him." Kuchinawa bows in agreement, and then backs off. In the arena, it is only with the help of his swift leaps that Zelos is managing to avoid getting torn apart by the beast's lunging claws and gargantuan tail.

"This guy just doesn't let up! Come on Zelos, you need to find it's weak point." Zelos lands on the ground and begins waving his shielded arm in front of his body, preparing a magic spell since he felt sword strikes would be ineffective. "THUNDER BLADE!" He proclaims swiftly as he swings his hand into the air and summons forth a sword of divine electricity that he sends crashing into the back of the gargantuan dragon.

But the sword bounces right off of him after releasing a small shockwave with little to show in the way of phasing the creature. The dragon turns around and opens his mouth while Zelos' flinches in surprise and leaps back, avoiding the flames that come out with great agility. "You got to be kidding me, magic isn't going to work either? …Or maybe it's not regular magic that I need to be using here…"

Zelos looks around, and notices that the audience is starting to run out in a panic as the dragon was showing little regard for the environment around him as it attacked. Lloyd and the others were still watching from afar, causing Zelos to scoff and note "Got to get out of sight first…Wait, I got an idea!" The Chosen smiles, and after backflipping past another tail swing from the dragon Zelos quickly casts Thunder Blade on the ground in front of the dragon.

The sword of electricity cracks through the ground, opening the way to the jail quarters down below, to which Zelos comments "Bingo!" He then dashes forward, outrunning the lumbering dragon as he slides straight into the hole he created before the dragon can impale him with his claws.

The creature's bulky hand rubs against the edge of the hole, bringing debris down with the Chosen as he lands on the ground in front of the jail cell that was conveniently holding Kate. The half-elf scientist was surprised by the man's sudden appearance along with the commotion going on outside and commented "W-Who are you?"

Zelos quickly turns to face Kate and comments "Oh, the uniform." He then pulls his masks off and gives her his suave grin while saying "To you, my dear, I'm Zelos Wilder, and I'm here to rescue you!"

Kate lets out a gasp of surprise at this bit of news, while up above the dragon continues to try and claw through the hole to reach Zelos, his frantic behavior causing even more of the audience to evacuate, while with Lloyd's group Regal is swift to point out "It seems Zelos has chosen to take the more direct route to free Kate. We should hurry to meet him."

"But what about the dragon?" Lloyd asks as he and the others rise to their feet. Regal replies "The Pope's men should be able to tame it. So long as everyone is evacuating, we have nothing to worry about." The group then makes a mad dash for the Coliseum entrance, which proves a little difficult thanks to the abundance of citizens trying to make their way out.

Meanwhile, back with Zelos and Kate, Zelos throws his 'Nobleman of Tethe'alla' costume off and looks up at the dragon, where he proceeds to wave his shielded arm out in front of his body while Kate comments "What are you going to do about that dragon?!"

"Heh, don't worry about that my dear, I got a little ace up my sleeve. Just don't go telling Lloyd and the others about it, ok~?" As a circle of bright light forms around Zelos' feet, angelic feathers rise up as Zelos quickly chants "Oh sacred powers, cast your purifying light-" The dragon opening his mouth ready to send flames at the Chosen forces Zelos to quickly say "Blah blah blah, JUDGMENT!"

Raising his hand into the air with all of his might, Zelos then quickly takes out his sword and cuts through the iron bars holding Kate in her cell, and he sheathes his blade while commenting "Ok, we're out of here!" While Kate is completely befuddled by the Chosen's words and actions, she isn't really in a position to say anything as Zelos quickly picks her up and tosses her over his right shoulder, after which he sprints towards the exit of the confinement area.

The dragon is then burned straight through the head by a single beam of holy light, which proceeds to crash straight into the jail area and send a tremor through the entire Coliseum before it dissipates into the afternoon sky, leaving a headless, bulky corpse in the middle of the arena much to the Pope's confusion.

Back with Zelos and Kate, the Chosen manages to climb the stairs out of the confinement area, where he meets up with Lloyd and the others just as they made it to the entrance. "Zelos, you're alive!" Lloyd says in a tone of surprise. The Chosen cracks a half-hearted grin thanks to his minor state of exhaustion and comments "No time for that now Lloyd, we got to bail before-"

"There they is! The wanted Chosens and their followers! Kill them all!" A large group of Papal Knights starts to charge the group from behind with their pikes and swords. Lloyd figures out what needs to be done and proclaims "No argument here, lets bail!"

After Zelos passes Kate off to Regal's arms, the group runs straight out of the Coliseum, with Lloyd commenting to the half-elf scientist "Hehe, sorry to drop this jailbreak on you suddenly." Kate leans her head back in Regal's arms and comments in a flustered tone "I-It's fine…I-I'm just surprised you came to rescue me."

After running down the stairway in the middle of Meltokio, Raine is quick to comment "We can't deal with the sewers this time, not when we have so many guards after us!" This causes Riku to run ahead of the rest of the group while clenching his right fist and stating "Well, if subtlety is out of the question!"

He throws his fist at the closest part of the Meltokio wall, sending out a giant bullet of air that breaks the stone apart without harming anyone nearby. "Well, I suppose that's better than nothing…" Raine comments quietly before she and the rest of the group sprint through the newly made hole. Once on the other side of Meltokio's wall, Riku flips around and waves his hand at the debris, picking it up and throwing it all back into place in a rather sloppy manner. But it was enough to stop the Papal Knights from pursuing.

Making a run straight for the Rheairds parked outside, Regal helps prop Kate up behind Lloyd, since he is too big to accommodate her on the seat of his Rheaird. Once everyone was ready to take-off, Lloyd asked Kate "So where do you want to go now? Do you have any parents that can keep you safe?"

Kate went silent for a moment, her eyes glancing down in a melancholy manner before she says  
"…Can you just take me to Ozette?" Lloyd is surprised by this request, leading to him pointing out "Umm, Ozette is in ruins now…You sure about that?"

"They wouldn't think to find me there…" Is Kate's response, and without any further debate Lloyd nodded his head and took off on the Rheaird. After a short flight with his friends, Lloyd and the group ended up at the blackened remains of Ozette right outside Presea's untouched former house. Once there, the group joined Kate so they could make sure that everything was safe for her at the moment.

But before they walked too far, Kate turned around and bowed before the group, saying in an appreciative manner "Even though I did such terrible things to Presea, I thank you for rescuing me." Lloyd replies in turn once she lifts herself up "You helped us escape Sybak and you were about to be executed because of that. Of course we were going to help you out, Kate."

"…Even if I told you who I really am?" Kate pokes at the middle of her glasses in a saddened manner, leading to Lloyd glancing at her in confusion before asking "What are you talking about?" Kate explains in a hesitant manner "My mother was an elf, and my father…Is the current Pope in the Church of Martel."

Everyone reacts with surprise at this bit of news, minus Riku, who sits in the back and looks rather disgusted at the Pope because of this. "You're lucky you took after your mother." Zelos points out in a serious tone of voice, but this leads to Genis looking at Zelos and exclaiming towards him "How can you only say that?! He tried to have his own daughter executed! How can anyone do that?!"

"You have to remember that it was the Pope who ruled that all half-elves who commit crimes are to be punished with death. He can't show favoritism just because his daughter is one." Zelos' explanation doesn't make Genis feel any better, and he immediately snaps back with "Then why make that law in the first place?! I swear, if I see the Pope again, he'll pay for this…"

These words concern both Raine and Lloyd, but it was Kate who looked at Genis and begged of him "Please…Don't do anything bad to my father!" Genis looks at her and says "Why?! He's done terrible things to you?!"

"Yes…That's true, but…He's still my father, and when he finally ordered me to perform experiments to turn Exspheres into Cruxis Crystals. I was very happy. My father finally needed me…" Kate's explanation was spoken in such a bizarre manner that it absolutely sickened Riku, who scowled while Genis went on to mention "I can't understand! I don't want to understand that!"

It was at that point that Raine walked in front of Genis and folded her arms sternly while saying "Genis, calm down now!" Genis is about to talk back to his sister, when Raine quickly and firmly slaps him across the face, garnering shock from the rest of the group but succeeding in making Genis' get a grip on himself.

After a moment's quiet, Colette chimes in with an empathetic sounding "I think I get what Kate's saying…When I thought Remiel might be my father, I was happy that my father had come to see me, even though I knew my journey would end in death."

"Colette, that's a nice sentiment, but Kate's situation is pretty different. That bastard used his own daughter like a tool for his own ends, forcing her to only feel happiness towards him when he depended on her for help. That's not love, that's emotional torture!" Riku gave out a rather uncharacteristically sounding response to the whole ordeal, which made even Zelos give the boy a puzzled glance before the teenage Overlord blinks twice and glances away while murmuring "…Why did I say that…"

Kate quietly comments after that matter "…I'm going to think by myself for a while about my father and half-elves…Thank you again for saving me…And Presea…" Presea glances at the half-elf as she bows her head and says in a truly honest tone "…I'm sorry." Kate then turns around and walks off to go contemplate everything that has transpired.

Colette frowns slightly and says "This is…horrible. Why do things wind up like this?" Regal replies as he rubs the bottom of his chin "Two forces will always oppose each other. Sylvarant and Tethe'alla, elves and humans, heaven and earth…" "Light and darkness…" Riku whispers to himself as Regal's sentence comes to an end.

"And those in the middle are sacrificed. Half-elves, the Great Seed, and the Chosen as well." Raine offers her own view on the matter, while Lloyd shakes his head and says "It's wrong to say that someone can be sacrificed."

"But anytime there are two people one will be sacrificed by the establishment of superiority. It's the same way with countries and worlds. Equality…is an illusion." Zelos replies in a very serious tone, while Sheena hangs her head low and notes "Birth, status, appearance, race…we're engulfed by these things."

"But…everyone has the same heart. Everyone hurts when they're rejected. But people forget that…" Lloyd's response, while idealistic, did have some degree of merit, which caused Genis to murmur to himself "The same…heart…" While Colette nodded her head and agreed "If only everyone could live thinking about each other like that…"

"…The only thing we can do is to believe in that and start doing what we can." Lloyd says, and Raine follows-up by mentioning "What we can do right now is release the Summon Spirits' mana links."

Lloyd nods his head in agreement of that plan and comments "Let's go get the blue candle from the Elemental Research Laboratory so we can form a pact with Shadow." With the matter of Kate now settled and new thoughts stirring on their minds, the group boarded their Rheairds and prepared to head back to Meltokio, where from there the Summon Spirit Shadow awaited them in the Temple of Darkness…

_Next Time: The Nocturne's Glimmer_


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22: Shadow**

After returning to the Elemental Research Laboratory, the group ends up receiving the Blue Candle from the head researcher, and the rest of the team is thankful for Lloyd and the others rescuing Kate. There was also some brief talk of the Pope losing face for the stunt he pulled in the Coliseum with the dragon and Zelos, but that was not important enough to warrant any further attention at the moment.

Thus, after a quick escape from Meltokio, the group decided to focus back on their original goal, and used their Rheairds to fly back to the Temple of Darkness to pact with Shadow. Along the way though, Lloyd brought something up to the others "So once we're done with Shadow, we just need to form a pact with Luna in Sylvarant, right?"

"That's not that simple, remember? Luna requested that we reunite her with Aska before she'd do anything with us." Raine's reminder made Lloyd chuckle and say "I know, I know, but I'm just making sure the others know when we'll be breaking the last mana link."

"Hmm, that's true. We need to start considering just where we're going to go once the worlds split apart…" Regal remarks, leading to Zelos saying in a laid-back manner "Let's not worry about that right now, we got plenty of time to think about that before we see Luna."

"I suppose you're right, but you better plan on taking this matter seriously, Zelos." Sheena says, to which Zelos grins and replies "You think I don't know? I'm going to take it as seriously as I do everything else." "…That's the problem, really." Sheena groans in response.

It only takes a few minutes after that conversation for everyone to land on the ground outside the temple entrance, and as they move towards the heavy darkness Lloyd reaches into his coat and pulls out the blue candle, which is a mound of purple wax wrapped inside a heat-resistant glass sphere. The flame on top of the wick was dark-blue with a black center, but it provided no illumination until the group walked into the temple itself.

The darkness keeping them away was now instead replaced with an eerie but fitting violet glow. "Well, better than nothing I guess…" Genis says, his tone indicating that he felt a little frightened by the environment. "The mana definitely feels unstable here, especially compared to other temples." Raine notes not long afterwards.

"Well, let's take a long around and see what's up. Just don't stray too far from the blue candle." Riku's remark leads to the group sticking close behind Lloyd as they advance further into the cavern. A quick trip across a small white bridge leads to the group walking into a temple-like structure, and on the other side of the walls they find themselves inside an area with bleak and very ancient looking architecture.

"So this is what the temple is like on the inside…This place is even more foreboding than Volt's temple." Sheena comments, her body trembling slightly in fear before Zelos says "It's called the Temple of Darkness for a reason, my dear dear Sheena. Oooh, maybe we'll run across some ghosts!"

"Shut up Zelos, I don't need to be thinking about that!" Sheena turns on the Chosen and yells at him with an uneasy tone in her voice. Zelos waves his hands in front of his chest and replies "Easy there Sheena, I'm just joking around here! Besides, there's no such thing as ghosts."

"I'd have a few tales to tell you otherwise, Zelos." Riku says with a light smile on his face, and Zelos proceeds to glance at him while saying "Ok fine, there's no ghosts on Tethe'alla or Sylvarant! Sheesh, I just nearly got fried by a dragon and now you're picking on me, when did this become 'Pick on Zelos' day?"

As the group was having a little moment, a small shapeless blob of darkness slowly crawled along the ground in front of them, it's body carrying within it a miniscule clump of violet mana. Raine, who was sighing at the antics unfolding behind her, was the only one who happened to notice the blob, at which point she commented "Hold on, what do we have here?"

Raine bends down and tries to stop the blob with her right hand, but is surprised when the creature moves right through without being stopped at all, like it was a type of phantom. This causes Raine's eyes to glisten brightly as she grins and feels her body tingle in joy "Fascinating, what could this be?"

"Huh? What're doing sis?" Genis turns to face Raine, failing to notice the blob until a moment later, at which point he comments "A blob? What's that doing wandering around a Summon Spirit's temple?"

"Heheh, I get it now, this must be Shadow's power in a physical form! His mana leaked out from the seal and began wandering around the temple, and unless we capture them all we won't be able to form a pact with Shadow! Hehehehehe!" Raine was clearly enjoying this discovery, and Genis could only slant his eyes in concern and groan out "Ugh, Raine…"

The blob suddenly stops moving once it reaches a cylindrical crystal filled with light, allowing the others enough time to take a look at it and figure out what to do next. "Aw, how cute, this little fellow can't go into the light." Colette comments as she goes down to try and pet the blob, forgetting it's ethereal nature as her hand slips through.

"Well it makes sense, it's the Summon Spirit of Darkness." Lloyd obviously points out, leading to Genis stating "Well if we need to gather them all, we're gonna have to put out that light."

"I'm going to assume shattering the crystal is out of the question?" Riku asks, leading to Regal commenting "Assuming my theory is correct, these crystals should be filled with light mana, so it'd probably kill the fragments of Shadow if we broke them around him."

"Then maybe we should corral all five of them into that wide open area below this floor, and it'd be easy to take them from there down to wherever the seal is at!" Colette makes a surprising smart decision, and after Lloyd glances down at the area his friend was talking about he says "That could work Colette. Might as well explore the temple and see what we can do."

"But shouldn't we keep someone with the blob, just in case he tries to leave?" Zelos asks, leading to Raine immediately lifting her hand up and saying "I'll do it!" She did little to hide her enthusiasm, but Lloyd just glances at her in a deadpan manner before saying "Well there's only one candle, so we kind of have to stick together."

"Actually, maybe not." Riku walks over to Lloyd and takes the blue candle from his hands, examining it's structure with his eyes before he notes "Yeah, I think I can solve this issue. The flame doesn't rely on mana to burn, surprisingly."

After a bit of concentration, Riku forms a sphere of energy around his left palm, showing a light twitch of pain in his face as he forms a glass orb along with a near replica of the blue candle inside. Once he's done, the teenage Overlord lets out a relaxed breath and says "There we go…Now we can split up and cover more ground. I'll stay with Raine to keep an eye on this fragment of Shadow, and Lloyd, Genis and Colette can go find the Sorcerer's Ring altar that's more than likely in this temple."

After he says this, he hands one blue candle off to Lloyd and proceeds to create another one, only this time Sheena figures out what the teenage Ovelord was suggesting and said "And you want the rest of us to go find Shadow's other fragments?" Riku nods his head as he finishes the second blue candle copy.

"I think we can handle that…So long as Lloyd finds what we need to deal with the lights." Zelos makes a joking remark towards Lloyd, and the boy replies with an equally jovial sounding "You do your part, and we'll do ours."

After Riku hands the blue candle off to Sheena, her group heads off to the western part of the temple while Lloyd and his two friends go for the eastern part, leaving the teenage Overlord and Raine with the first of Shadow's fragments. Riku holds onto the blue candle in his right hand and sits down at the edge of the path, while Raine taps the bottom of her chin and examines Shadow's fragment further.

"Interesting, so the unbalanced mana in here can be attributed to Shadow carrying his mana around, even after he split apart. Just how long has he been split apart, and has it had an adverse effect on the mana links? Hmmm, there's just so much I wish to do to this little blob, even though I can't touch him!" Raine's excitement echoed through the Temple of Darkness, causing a familiar sounding groan to be heard in the distance.

"It wouldn't be right to violate a Summon Spirit anyways, otherwise we'd anger them before we made the pact…Granted, I don't think Shadow could cause any destruction to Tethe'alla like Volt did." Riku says, leading to Raine commenting "Yes, I suppose you're right…Ohhh, why can't the Summon Spirits share their secrets with us?!"

With her excitement not fading any time soon, Riku grinned and decided to test something out while he was near Shadow's fragment. Reaching forward, the teenage Overlord moved his hand into the blob, and once it phased inside the teenage Overlord's expression went blank as he began to hear a voice slowly call out to him from afar _"Riku…I can't…don't free al…it'll be the…" _

Riku pulls his hand out suddenly and starts breathing rapidly, which actually pulls Raine out of her "ruin-mode" as she turns to look at him and says out of concern "What happened? You look paler all of a sudden." True enough, the teenage Overlord's face was flushed of color, leading to him staying frozen in place with his heart pumping until he recovers, where he then looks straight at Raine and says "I…I'm sorry if I worried you Raine."

"…You weren't out for long, but what happened when you touched Shadow?" Raine was curious to know what caused this event, and Riku rubbed the back of his head while commenting "I don't know. It's hard to explain."

"I'm willing to hear you out, if you want." Raine makes this offer politely, and after a hesitant pause Riku leans back and looks towards the ceiling while saying "I don't remember if I explained this to you, but when I came to this world most of my elemental powers were taken away from me. It turns out that I could regain them once Sheena formed a pact with the appropriate Summon Spirit. But there are two elements remaining that are more crucial to me than the rest."

"Light and Darkness…Hmm, considering your job, it makes sense that you'd hold those two elements in high regard. But there is more to this explanation, isn't there?" Raine asks, and Riku looks down at the half-elf to say "You really do pick up things easily…Remember back in the Temple of Ice when I mentioned a friend of mine?"

"Takashi was their name, right?" Raine says, and after Riku nods his head he explains "Well there is another friend, her name is Sodenko. Both of them are dragons of Darkness and Light respectively."

This bit of news makes Raine's eyes widen in intrigue, and a smile cracks before she says "Dragons, huh? Let me guess, these two dragons act like Summon Spirits, correct?" Riku explains "As in they exist in another realm when they aren't being summoned? Yeah, that's a pretty good guess, how did you piece that together?" He was surprised by Raine's well-thought guess, but only to a slight extent.

"When you mentioned that you lost your elements upon entering this world and the connection to the Summon Spirits, I figured that everything you lost had to go somewhere, and if the seals are already inhabited by the Summon Spirits, where would these elements go?" Raine pauses for a moment before commenting "It's obvious the mana links are where your lost elements have gone, and since you mentioned being unable to introduce us to your friends at the time it was easy to assume that the two dragons are sealed within the mana links as well."

"…That would make sense, wouldn't it? Truth be told, I was beginning to assume that before I was testing a theory out on Shadow's fragment. When my hand phased through him, I heard Takashi's voice calling out to me in bits. It wasn't as bad as it was in Celsius' temple, but I still couldn't clearly make out what he was telling me." Once Riku's part of the explanation was at an end, Raine had but one more comment to say on the matter.

"And because of what we have theorized, that could only mean that by touching Shadow's fragment you briefly connected to the mana links, which greatly harmed your body after such a short period of time." "Yeah…Well making two copies of the blue candle probably didn't help me out either." Riku replies as he pulled his head back and took a few deep breaths in to regain his strength, which surprised Raine a bit.

"…So the flames were made out of mana. You didn't want the others to worry about you." Raine states, and after getting a bit of his energy back Riku comments "It's probably selfish of me, but yeah. It's also the reason why I didn't mention that I'm friends with dragons earlier, since there wasn't really a good moment between everything involving Rodyle and now."

"That's a fair point, there is no need to cause unnecessary stress. I can handle this information just fine, but not to mock Lloyd for this…But he's probably find it all very confusing." Once Raine's sentence was at an end, Lloyd's voice is heard as he says "Find what confusing, Professor?"

The teenage Overlord and the half-elf turn to face Lloyd as he fires off an orb of darkness from the Sorcerer's Ring to turn off the light, causing the fragment of Shadow to run off and gather around Lloyd alongside two other fragments. Now Shadow appeared to be more solid in form, as evidenced by Colette kneeling down and kindly petting the three fragments around her.

"Nothing Lloyd, Riku and I were discussing something. I see you managed to find the altar and a couple fragments. I wonder how Sheena and the others are holding up." Raine and Riku get back on their feet, and Lloyd comments "Beats me, we didn't run each other on the eastern part of the temple. Should we go after them?"

"…Lets just go to the gathering spot for now, we'd have a better vantage point to help the others out." Raine's suggestion is met with an approving nod of the head from the others, and Lloyd says "We found a path down there while we were looking for the altar. Follow me."

After a brief tour down a flight of stairs to the east, the five end up at a singular rounded platform leading to a large staircase towards the deepest recesses of the temple. Once there, they find that Zelos and the others had already arrived with the remaining two fragments of Shadow. "What? How?!" Lloyd says in a tone of utter surprise.

"…Surprisingly, we didn't run into any lights on the other side of the temple. Shadow's fragments ended up following us without any trouble." Sheena comments, to which Zelos follows-up on by rubbing the bottom of his chin and saying "Heh, or Shadow was just lured in by my natural charm."

"…You really want to say that when Shadow is a guy?" Lloyd says in a deadpan manner, and Zelos immediately replies back with "H-Hey, you can't prove that now! Shadow could take on the appearance of a beautiful woman! Aren't Summon Spirits able to project themselves as whatever the person wishes to see anyways?"

"I think it was more along the lines of 'a form that the people would be comfortable with seeing'…I'm not helping Zelos' endless libido, am I?" Sheena says, proceeding to let out an annoyed sigh as Zelos grins, and Regal quickly suggests "Let us not get too off-track here…We came here for a reason, after all."

"Shadow's seal should be at the bottom of the temple, if my assumption is correct. Hopefully the blue candles will hold up until we form the pact." Raine says, and within moments the group begins to descend down the staircase with Shadow's fragments following close behind.

Even with the blue candle lighting the way ahead, the darkness in this part of the temple was particularly thick, leaving only the staircase downward visible in this endless expanse of darkness. On the way down, Lloyd has a momentary thought before he turns to face Zelos and says to him "…I really am starting to respect your Chosens for everything they had to go through."

"Heh, what can I say? We're one of a kind over here." Zelos' response is met with a blunt remark from Sheena "Zelos, I'm pretty certain he wasn't talking about you." Naturally, this does little to wound Zelos' pride as a man, even if he does put on a big display after this comment is spoken.

After that, the group was mostly quiet so they could remain focused, and after a good five minutes of walking down the stairs and finally find Shadow's seal on a lone, warped platform. There was a cold chill in the air because of how far down the group had traveled, but they didn't bother worrying about that as the fragments quickly ran for the seal and gathered together into a singular blob.

With a mild explosion of black light, the blobs reform into Shadow, a lithe monster made of darkness that had curved, spiked extensions all across it's body along with little bits of bone-like armor and a single hazy blue eye on it's gut. The Summon Spirits glanced forth with it's pupil-less blue eyes and asked with a serpentine-like voice "…Mithos and I…pact…" He was a creature of few words, but his meaning was clear.

"I am Sheena! I ask that though annulst thy pact with Mithos, and establish a new pact with me!" Sheena says with little hesitation or lack of confidence in her voice. Shadow raises his claws up and says simply in response "…Fight."

"No need to think this one through. Raine, Sheena, Lloyd and Colette should face Shadow. A combination of light-based spells and close combat should be enough to deal with him." Riku says as he steps back and keeps the blue candle held high enough to illuminate the area. Lloyd says "Huh, I'm surprised Riku is choosing to stick this one out. Well, can't say I disagree with his plan, but are you ok with this Colette?"

The merry Chosen pulls out her two golden rings and summons forth her angel wings, happily nodding her head while saying "Of course I am Lloyd, don't worry about me." With the confidence of his friend in his thoughts, Lloyd pulls out his two swords and says "Alright Shadow, we'll show you that we're worthy of your pact! Come on!"

Shadow starts off the battle by swinging it's right arm out and drawing dark haze onto his claw, opening up the ground with a black crystal-like circle as multiple lances of crystalline energy form above the circle and point themselves at the group, firing down upon them and forcing them to divide up and not get hit.

Once they were split up on the battlefield, Shadow takes his darkness covered claws and lifts them into the air, blackening the area to such an extent that even the blue candle is barely able to keep things alit. It was then that the Summon Spirit became one with his element, forcing Lloyd to put his swords up in front of his body in case he ends up being the first target. Meanwhile, Colette uses her angelic powers to light up her rings enough to break through the darkness around them, and with a single fling out in front of her body she sees Shadow gliding along the ground at a rapid pace.

"Watch out, he's on the move!" Colette exclaims a warning to her friends, but since only she could see Shadow her considerate effort would only be in vain. Once she catches her returning ring, the Chosen's eyes light up as she thinks of an idea to deal with Shadow's movements. Putting her rings away for a moment, Colette places one hand on her chest and waves another one out, closing her eyes as a glowing circle of holy energy forms below her. "O' holy one, cast your purifying light upon these corrupt souls. Judgment!"

"Colette, no!" Lloyd blurts out in a panic, but it was already too late as Colette brandishes her finger towards the sky and lets out a ring of light as Shadow appears behind her with claw pulled back thanks to the Chosen making herself an easy to find target. Lloyd runs straight at Colette before the light around her body fades away and leaps into the air, swinging both of his swords out and meeting Shadow's claw just a second before he impaled it through Colette's skull.

The Summon Spirit is pushed back a bit as the clinging of Lloyd's blades creates some sparks of light, but then the aftereffect of Colette's Judgment is set off, leading to an array of holy beams firing down across the battlefield at random locations. Lloyd has to push back before he's struck, letting off a surprised "Whoa!" as he lands in front of Colette and skids along the ground.

Shadow is struck with the edge of the beam, causing him to let out a raspy groan of pain as it swiftly pulls away from Colette's body. "He's getting away!" Lloyd proclaims before he quickly runs past Colette and swings his sword against the ground to send a fanged projectile after the Summon Spirit. However, this causes Zelos to let out a loud "Ow!" as he gets hit in the feet through the darkness.

"What the hell Lloyd, can't you see where we are?!" Zelos says, hinting to Lloyd that Shadow's field of darkness did not affect any of his allies. Standing upright for a moment, Lloyd throws out a "Sorry!" at Zelos before quickly turning back around and saying "Are you alright Colette?"

However, he could no longer see his friend, as the darkness had taken her away from his sight once more. But her voice could still be heard, and she says with her natural chuckle preceding it "I'm ok Lloyd." Sheena then says from somewhere else on the battlefield "Y-You probably shouldn't use Judgment in here Colette! None of us can see what's going on until the last moment!" From the sounds of things, she had narrowly survived a beam from Colette.

"Hehe, sorry Sheena…" Colette apologies, but then she proceeds to let out a cry of shock as she suddenly notices Shadow appearing in front of her with both claws drawn like a guillotine. Colette jumps out of the way of the Summon Spirit's slash and flips her body around, throwing one light covered ring at Shadow's chest to try and hurt him. The light signals Raine about where Colette currently was along with the Summon Spirit, allowing her to focus her staff in front of her body and prepare one of her most powerful light spells to strike against Shadow.

"Colette, keep attacking him with your rings. Lloyd, assist her!" Raine gives out a couple orders to make things easier for her since she'd need to spend a few seconds preparing her attack. After Shadow had ducked below her first ring and clawed at Colette's legs, the Chosen used her wings to fly up a bit and call her ring back into her hand.

Before Colette could follow up on Raine's plan, Shadow cast another spell, using his darkness to summon forth a collapsing black sphere around the Chosen's body that binds her in place and squeezes her body, making her let out a cry of pain that hastens Lloyd's advance towards the Summon Spirit. He takes both his swords and thrusts them into Shadow's shoulders with enough force that the Summon Spirit recoils back and drops all concentration on his attack, which frees Colette before the sphere bursts.

Lloyd pulls back on one sword and swings the other against the ground to send a fanged projectile at Shadow's lower body, which makes the creature flinch in place long enough for Colette to catch her breath and throw another ring of light at the Summon Spirit's head. The ring moves right through him, but deals significant enough damage while illuminating the way for Raine's completed spell.

"Photon!" Raine proclaims the name of her attack, and within moments Shadow is bound in place by a collapsing sphere of light that acted as the antithesis of his last attack. However, no one was around to save Shadow, leading to the sphere bursting apart and striking him with a large influx of light energy.

Shadow shrieks in pain this time, but is left paralyzed as Lloyd runs up and performs a diagonal slash with both of his swords to keep up the assault on the Summon Spirit. But even with all the damage that he had taken thus far, Shadow's durability was enough to allow him to stabilize himself and try to slip away back into his own darkness. Before that occurred though, Sheena took advantage of the light display to throw a seal onto Shadow's back.

When the Summon Spirit retreats into the ground, he is quickly met with a medium-sized explosion that blows apart his body into various chunks that spreads across the battlefield. "Whoa, way to go Sheena!" Lloyd says in a praising tone. "Thanks…I've been having difficulty helping out, but you helped with the light shows."

"It's not over yet…Shadow is starting to reform." Raine says as she feels the individual pieces of Shadow moving around her feet. Shadow reforms in the center of the battlefield, and Lloyd readies his swords again for another round. But once the Summon Spirit is back to normal, the air is filled with an abnormal sounding echo of the word _"Execution…" _Suddenly, Shadow's presence is illuminated by a hazy crimson circle beneath his body, and before Lloyd can run at him for another attack the Summon Spirit splits apart into multiple pieces and sinks all of them into the circle below his body.

After the circle vanishes, the entire temple trembles as Shadow summons forth a cloud of crimson darkness above his opponents. Lloyd grits his teeth and looks up while swinging his swords out to the side and watches as one beam of swift piercing darkness comes down from above, forcing him to leap back before he's punctured through. That beam was a prelude to many more that seek out the four fighters with complete precision.

Flashes of crimson light streak through the battlefield, putting even the onlookers on edge as their friends' lives are put on the line against Shadow's desperate onslaught. Colette's wings allow her to avoid most of the beams, while Sheena and Raine have to be swift in their movements since their weapons aren't suited to cut away the beams before they strike down.

"This is ridiculous! Where did Shadow go?!" Lloyd says as he takes whatever opportunity he can to look around for the Summon Spirit's presence. But when not a trace of him can be found, Lloyd actually has a moment of brilliance upon looking up towards the cloud. After swinging away another piercing beam with the reflective glint of his blades, Lloyd folds both blades in a cross in front of his body and waits for another to come down, where he lets the beam collide with his swords.

The impact cracks the ground below him, but Lloyd pushes back against the beam with all of his strength to keep it at bay long enough to grunt out to Colette "S-Strike at the cloud! It's our only chance!" Shadow's onslaught is stopped by Lloyd's effort, giving Colette enough breathing room to take a quick and concerned look at Lloyd before glancing up at Shadow's cloud, where after a quick fold of her arms she throws both light covered rings straight at the phenomenon.

A bright flash of light is sent out through the cloud, and immediately Lloyd is able to push back the beam of darkness that was against his swords. Shadow is struck amidst the dark cloud, and after a mere moment his body is thrown out of his own created phenomenon, where his reformed self lands on the ground in a barely stable mesh of darkness.

The darkness that blinded the group vanishes along with the cloud, and it was safe to say that Shadow was no longer in any condition to fight so Lloyd sheathed his swords and said "Whew…That was pretty rough."

Shadow rises up slightly to be a little more dignified in his defeat before he speaks to Sheena. "Vow…" He was short on words once more, but didn't appear to hold any ire towards the ninja for the efforts put in by her and her friends. Sheena scratches the back of her head and comments "You don't waste any time, do you? Ahem, well then…For the sake of creating a place in which the two worlds must no longer sacrifice one another, I ask that you lend me your power."

Shadow nods his head with little hesitation and says "…Agreed." He then disappears into nothingness, creating a black seal for Sheena to use as a means of summoning him into battle, leaving Lloyd to simply comment "Now all that's left is to form a pact with the Summon Spirit of Light, and we can sever another mana link! We're counting on you to finish this, Sheena!"

Sheena confidently nods her head after putting Shadow's seal away, saying to Lloyd in response "You got it!" Now that they needed to leave the Temple of Darkness, Zelos was quick to point out "So umm…Are we going to have to climb all those stairs to get back?"

"Yes Zelos, every last one of them." Sheena replies in a deadpan manner. Zelos sighs for a moment before glancing at Riku and saying "Heeeeeeeeeey, buddy! Think you can use your powers to carry us back to the top?"

Riku, who had one hand on the side of his head as he was trying to focus on something, swiftly rejected Zelos' proposal with a blunt "I'm not an elevator service Zelos, we're climbing and that's final." The Chosen groans, but finds himself quickly having to accept this matter as everyone begins to depart.

The teenage Overlord chooses to lag behind slightly, and after a bit of time manages to finally hear a voice speak to him through the mind _"Riku? …Yeah, it is you, I recognize this connection. You finally managed to contact us again after you went to this god-forsaken world."_

"_Sorry Takashi, I couldn't just go straight to the Temple of Darkness with the way everything was going down. Are you ok? Have you had an adverse reaction to the mana links?" _Riku's immediate attention was on the black dragon's condition, and he got a swift response in the form of _"Mana links? Oh, the light ethereal flows I saw outside the dimension. I didn't get anywhere near those…But there is something I was trying to tell you while you connected with that Summon Spirit's fragments. You can't let those guys you're following break the last mana link. There's a force at work that-"_

"_Relax Takashi, I know what's going to happen when the last mana link breaks…And I know that we'll be able to deal with it when the time comes." _Riku replies with a timed interruption, which leaves the black dragon to say in a puzzled manner _"What? How the hell do you know that?" _

"…_It's kind of complicated, but it involves me providing some thanks to my brother for the type of memories he chose to give me." _Riku replies after a moment's hesitation. _"…I won't argue with you on that. Still, it's good to have you back, I was worried that I'd once again be trapped in an inescapable prison." _

"_While I'm here, I won't let that happen…Speaking of that though, is your sister with you?" _Riku's question was spoken simply due to the mention of the dimension that Takashi resided in. The black dragon's shaking head could be felt as he responded _"No. It's safe to assume she's residing in the part of the dimension where the mana link for the Summon Spirit of Light is. I can't safely travel there, but she should return to here once the pact is formed."_

"_Then free her I shall…Hang in there Takashi, the three of us will be reunited soon enough." _Pulling his hand away from his head, Riku continues to walk forward with the rest of the group, his goals placed firmly on the front of his mind as the pact with the final Summon Spirit drew closer with every passing second…


End file.
